Frosty morning

What a beautiful morning for a walk. The sun was trying to break through the early morning mist, it was frosty and crisp and once the mist cleared the sky was blue, the sun shone and it made you feel glad to be alive. By 'eck though it was chilly!

A layer of frost covered everything and with the mist laying in patches around the parkland everything was 'beginning to look a lot like Christmas...'Small patches of ice dotted the grass where horses hooves and excited dogs had made depressions in the soil and water had lain overnight. The patterns made as the sunlight reached the ice were rather beautiful.Further along the walk the sun's rays were breaking through the alder trees and shining through the mist making curtains of light.

This theme was repeated a bit further along the Nutbrook Trail as this shot through one of the bridges illustrates.Looking straight towards the sun through one of the trees you could have been forgiven for thinking you had stumbled onto the set of E.T. and were about to come face to face with something from outer space!Even the skeletons of the hogweed, covered with frost, looked like small star-bursts or fireworks.Finally, towards the point where we turned for home, a small pond in the woods offered some wonderful winter reflections. The water surface was almost like a mirror except for an occasional drop of water from an overhanging tree causing ripples to spread across it. Time for a hot cup of something I think!