April Country Walk 1.17-24

April Country Walk 1.17-24 Walk with me into the fields around my Dorset village (Part 3). A clump of trees on the skyline that had caught my eye were actually in the rape field but the access was easier following the broad grassy margin of the field next door (17). I think it is wheat growing there but it could be barley – a bit too early to determine from such short green shoots. You can see the thin chalky soil between the rows. There’s a clear view over to the Wolfeton Clump of trees in the distance to the east (18). I headed north up the slope. The hedge not so thick here but some trees like hawthorn were standing out (19).

Near the top of the rise, a gap in the hedge allowed me return to the yellow field. I looked back downhill and over the green fields to the southwest where the Wood Hill Clump of trees near the village stood out in the landscape (20). I was surprised that everything looked so hazy and the sky so dull when in the opposite direction everything was still bright light, sunshine and fluffy clouds. It was a real sunspot where I was standing, a good calm resting place for the battered Peacock butterfly I spotted in the grass (23). The combined colours of nature here were glorious (21,22). I had managed to get to the place I wanted to be – where a small deciduous wood of uncertain name was situated and a mysterious clump of trees (24) stood out among the yellow flowers. The exploration of these landscape features would have to wait for another day and another energy burst. I had to make sure I had enough steam left to get safely home.