midwinter tree

it’s two days the other side of the midwinter solstice, and still frosty at night. I got up at four am and the full moon was blazing down on the frosty garden. along the edge of the woods at midday the frost was white and hard as ever, though it was a sunny day today.

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we put up a small flock of Brent geese on the wheat. they weren’t going to go until Sal and Tilda decided to have a game and Sal barked. walking across the field the view seemed enormous in the soft light.

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seven geese refused to be moved, even when the main flock had flown off to other fields, and waddled off in a little group. one payback is that they leave some rich manure behind.

brent-close-up.jpg

you can see the next village’s church in the background here. although we had such a beautiful clear day, four miles further inland there was thick freezing fog.

we went into the wood so that I could photograph this solitary beech tree. it has a small clearing around it carpeted with copper leaves, and when it is wet the trunk looks black.

beech-tree.jpg

coming out again, I found Tilda had disappeared. she had gone further into the woods, and she had a plan. in fact she ran off five times today, I don’t know what got into her, but she was very determined to carry on as though I didn’t exist.

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4 Comments

  1. Wonderful beech tree.

    Those geese were surely not Canadian geese. Their “manure” is apparently abrasive and toxic.

  2. ooh, I don’t know … they are certainly not Canadian geese, they are Brent, which come from Siberia …. about half the size of a Canada goose … but I think there can’t be much difference in their pooh — except its smaller, of course.

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