geese above, bracken below

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four and a half weeks on from winter solstice, and the weather spring-like, with birdsong in the mornings; January almost over. the winter geese are still with us; Pinkfooted leave by the end of March, but Brent stay until April or May.

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walking around Holt Lowes’ scrubby woodland in the sunshine yesterday, there was no real sign of spring in the undergrowth – abundant russet bracken which still hangs on, autumn leaves still piled up – but suddenly I noticed all the gorse in flower. it’s a kind of gorsebush which flowers all year round to an extent, but this looked like a positive surge of yellow flowers.

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something soft and indefinite about the light, not full sunshine, with everything still sodden from the days of rain.

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there was a Muntjac deer in full sight amongst the bracken which Tilda and Sal could not resist. they lost it immediately, but T did three more passes around the woods looking for it.

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5 Comments

  1. Your gorse is so pretty PJ!! I wish we had flowers during the winter, but the frost pretty much makes that impossible. And I love your trail through the ferns…

  2. we do have a mild climate these days … not like before climate change when 14 degrees of frost perfectly common … but gorse does have a few flowers on it all the year round. I have a very pretty flower out on a shrub called Daphne at the moment, mauve, with a lovely honey scent.
    and this place is gorgeous to walk in.

  3. Wonderful picture of geese. I can almost hear them! I have never seen gorse before. The russet colors are so lovely. Is that Tilda? She is a beautiful girl. I like the trail picture as well. Thank you for sharing.

  4. Love your photography and your descriptions which remind me of Exmoor where I live.

    What is it about lambs tails and snowdrops that is so memory evoking? I remember lambs tails when, as a boy of only seven, I walked through the South Devon country lanes to my one classroom school. So many years ago, but the memory is still strong.

  5. Thanks, Rob. I must say, on the whole Norfolk couldn’t be more different from Exmoor, although here at the tail end of the Holt – Cromer ridge, which is supposed to be a glacial terminal moraine, there is more wilderness.

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