big skies

an early walk this morning at seven.

beautiful satin blue and rippled white sky looking west, and overhead.

to the east an incursion of grey cloud with bars of light from the low sun

although this walk is all on tarmac and its a march nearly all the way to the next village and march back again, with T on the lead, type of hike, I love it for the views.

the road swoops up and down; from the highest point there are glimpses of the sea, and coastal villages, misty today, the sea a mere smudge of hazy grey blue.

a small valley begins here, water running off the gravel ridge, and makes a crease in the landscape, holding patches of ragged woodland and wet grassland between the fields of barley and wheat.

I often see the roe deer from the shelter of these hedges, and the blackberrying is fantastic.

everything has been trimmed back recently, there are no wild flowers to speak of; but I did see a yellowhammer yesterday.

big ash and oak trees stand in the hedgerows.

the verges are wide – plenty of room to avoid the quite frequent cars – and yesterday a huge lorry.

this morning Tilda caught a rabbit with myxomatosis; luckily she had it by the neck and killed it quickly. there is a plague of rabbits at the moment, I suppose the disease is encouraged by overpopulation.