From Mist To Sunshine And Back

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The mist that shrouded the garden never left Downton today.

Motoring further away from the coast into the forest in the mid-afternoon, Jackie and I left the fog behind us and were treated to bright sunshine sending splayed shafts through the trees alongside

Holmsley Passage

Holmsley Passage.

The few leaves that still clung to the slender branches became dancing will-o-the-wisps flirting with autumn’s bronzed ferns;

Forest 5

and individual trunks were spotlit pillars.

Pony

Haze surrounded a solitary pony on the roadside approaching Burley, where

pools of recent precipitation reflected housing, trees, and sky.

The herd of red deer that had not been in evidence on our last visit to that village had today, as is their wont, invaded the field in front of the Manor House, where they rendered lawn mowers redundant.

By the time we returned home via Hordle Lane the mist had (in)visibly thickened.

This evening we dined with Becky and Matthew on Jackie’s tasty cottage pie, tender beef in red wine, and piquant cauliflower cheese. I drank Languedoc rouge 2015.

83 comments

  1. Happy New Year Derrick! I have been most remiss about keeping up with your lovely photos and narrative. I hope to do better in the new year. You always have something you need to share.

  2. Derrick, Forest Sunlight#5…okay, that’s not funny. You are leaving the rest of us who like photographs, and like taking them, in the dust. Derrick, are you using manual settings? I haven’t taken a good photograph since cameras went digital. What is the secret to getting a photograph like this? I have a Canon T3 (least expensive model) and three lens, but I don’t get what I can see with my eyes. ~Sign me, Frustrated!

    1. With my Canon EOS 5D Mark 2, which is what I used for these, I have never gone off automatic – just altered the focussing ring; with the SX 700 HS I stay on manual . Thanks for the compliments, Ginene

      1. Is Holmsley Passage a road or a path? I know the station (not just because it serves food!!) and I can recall the junction where one road, almost parallel, sheers away to go under the main road and the other follows the old railway line straight on, but I can’t place this location.

  3. What marvelous moody photos! Thank you for all the visual adventures you’ve shared this year, your wit and wisdom…and your steady flow of comments on Leaf and Twig are a sustenance for me. Thank you so much. Wishing you and yours every blessing and good thing in 2017. Catherine

    1. I can, even if Derrick can’t. I’ll try and outline it to him next time I see him face-to-face.

  4. Derrick, I thank you for brightening my dark days with life-giving photos of your flower garden and the grandeur of Nature around you. I wish you and your loved ones all the best in the New Year <3

  5. Absolutely breathtaking photographs! And your words are lovely:
    “The few leaves that still clung to the slender branches became dancing will-o-the-wisps flirting with autumn’s bronzed ferns…”
    I also loved how you described the red deer as grazing on the grass and making lawn mowers redundant! Ah, such wit 🙂
    Happy 2017, Derrick!

  6. Having worked our required forty hours in the four days between Christmas (3 day weekend) and New year’s weekend, I thought not posting everyone else would be busy with family. (Never assume things!)
    I missed one of your top ten posts here! Wow! I enjoyed the sunlight peering out behind and between foggy or misty areas. When you capture winding roads, you take my breath away!
    The horse along the road was dreamlike in its “apparition.” Thanks for sticking with my posts, providing quips and thoughtful snippets, Derrick. As always sending you and yours smiles and laughter with very little in aches and pains. . .<3

      1. I think we’re both describing Holmsley Passage from each end of the same stretch of road. The “arrowhead junction” is a good description.

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