… when the living is not exactly easy for all sorts of reasons, but is certainly simpler – and sometimes, quite wonderful. Unable to sleep, I got up just after sunrise and found lots to enchant me just a few minutes’ walk from home. Despite the hour, it…
Tag: summer
We are promised a heat wave and thunderstorms, but today started absolutely perfectly. I woke early and was out walking by 6:30 in the cool morning mist. It was one of those times when I realise just how many millions of spiders I share the world with –…
…. one of those words you hardly ever need, but when you do, you do. It is the smell of wet earth after rain – not usually noteworthy in our damp Atlantic climate here in Devon, but after weeks of parching sun and wind, we now have a…
Making the most of the hot dry weather, I did a clifftop walk along part of the South West Coast Path. We started in Bowleaze Cove, which is bordered by a strange mixture of expensive upmarket housing and budget tourist accommodation, plus a rather intriguing Spanish-style building of…
Tonight I visited one of the many Iron Age hillforts in the local area. The one atop Pilsdon Pen (one of the highest hills in Dorset at 277m, second only to Lewesdon) has a commanding view over the Marshwood Vale to the sea southwards, and far into Dorset,…
Sometimes, it’s the tiniest thing that makes an image work. I’ve banged on before about how a sunset sky often makes a boring image even though it was lovely to behold, and such a photo usually needs something pretty definite in the foreground to be compelling. We’ve had…
I realise I’m very lucky to live where I do. Today I felt especially privileged on a misty summer’s morning, when I stopped three times on the way to do my weekly shop to take stock of my surroundings. What is this life if, full of care, We…
A friend and I went up Pilsdon Pen to watch the midsummer sun rise. Despite a very chill breeze at just after 5am, we were rewarded by this wonderful view to the south, with the Marshwood Vale draped with early morning mist. Like many rural areas, the vale…
Late sunshine accentuates the vivid colours of wild sorrel seeds in a permanent pasture just down the road, belonging to Lyme Alpacas. The jewel-like reds are offset by the rich green of the grass and the golden splashes of field buttercups. One of those images that conjures up…