puddleshark

Took a walk along the underhill path, through the sunlight and the dappled shade. A narrow way, made narrower in summer by the grasses and nettles and the brambles. In the shade, near silence, but for the hum of insects, the flutter of songbirds.

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I thought the Harebells might be in flower on the Purbeck Hills, and indeed, they are. But it was wild and windy up on the hilltop, an unsuitable day for photographing delicate trembling Harebells and bumblebees clinging grimly on to madly-waving Scabious flowers. So I took some blurry pictures of windblown grass, and of young rooks playing tumbling aerobatic games where the wind funnels through the gap in the hills.

( Blurry things... )

Blue sky. Fairweather cloud. There's still a little warmth in the November sun, once the frost has lifted. But it's just a temporary lull between storms. The fields are soggy underfoot, the gateways churned to deep mud by cattle and by tractors. The paths have ambitions to become streams.

( Shooting into the light )

Another grey, cold morning. Met up with C. and her Manchester Terrier for a walk along the foot of the Purbeck Hills, through the scrub and hazel coppice. The underhill path perfectly dry. (In a normal year, it's a heavy slog through mud until at least April). Leaves of Cuckoo Pint and Dog Mercury beginning to green the woodland floor, and on banks the primroses already coming into flower.

A brief stop to admire the vast-as-a-mountain ancient oak in the heart of the woods. C. used to climb that craggy trunk as a child, sit in the mossy saddle where the trunk divides.

Then, back up over the hill, and down into Corfe village as the church bells were ringing. A coffee, sitting outside in the garden of the model village, gloves removed to clasp the cup. Plans made for Spring: a visit to the Wishing Well at Upwey in April when the willows are in leaf, a visit to the Secret Garden at Carey in May when the roses are in flower.

Driving back home, the sun began to break through the cloud. On the river plain, the new twigs on the willows shining copper in the sunlight below an icy pale blue sky. Suddenly it feels like March.

We are having a mini-heatwave (for a British value of the word 'heatwave'). Two days with the temperatures in the mid to high 20s C, before the rain returns in time for the weekend. Had planned to head down to the coast this morning, but the sky was cloudless, near white - the worst possible sky for landscape photography. So there was a change of plans en route, and a visit to Corfe Castle for a walk on the Purbeck Hills instead.


Corfe Castle. A warm wind making the Dog Daisies dance on the hilltop, and passing in ripples over the barley down in the valley.

( butterfly season )