Robins In The Hedgerows

Ian returned to Southbourne for work this morning. After lunch Jackie and I drove to Tesco for some shopping, and continued into the forest.

As we turned into Hordle Lane yellow-brown ochre clouds flung a hatful of

every kind of precipitation at our windscreen as photographed by Jackie. Sleet and snow were lashed by brisk gusts of north wind making the 6C degree dropped temperature feel much colder.

During an apparent cessation I left the car to photograph an eponymous sculpture on Woodcock Lane, and was soon beset by further soft white flakes and ice-hard pellets which spared the ubiquitous laurel blossoms.

I wandered around the rippling Wootton stream alongside which a pair of discarded wellies aroused speculation. Lengthy striate arboreal shadows criss-crossed water surfaces and cropped banks alike. The last picture in this gallery is by Jackie.

Fluffy cotton clouds soon replaced the earlier heavily laden ones as cerulean skies returned.

The widening of the A35 bridge at Holmsley, scheduled to be completed next week will not now be finished before June. The causeway leading to it is not normally a road on which it is sensible to stop. Now it is closed we were able to sneak along it and I could nip out and photograph the woodland and its denizens below.

The landscape of Longslade Heath was dotted with grazing and reclining ponies.

South Sway Lane’s verges were enhanced by robins and primroses.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s beef pie meal and/or chicken and vegetable stewp with which I drank Patrick Chodot Fleurie 2019.

69 comments

  1. Oh, those pesky forms of precipitation can always have a surprise in the clouds! Great gallery, Derrick. (Tell Jackie we both loved her addition to the show!) And what a cute little robin, glad you spotted it and made the record for us.

  2. Silly spring weather…one day forward, the next day backwards.

    It’s autumn here and the mornings are less warm but the afternoon can be steamy and hot. So my indoor aircon is still on summer mode.

  3. Winter just won’t let go, will it! Lovely photos as always, and we have the same road problems here. They say the work will be complete by a certain date, then it’s extended, Grrr!

  4. The wellies are a bit of a puzzle. It’s difficult to work out why somebody would bring the wellies to the waterside and then leave them there.They are lying in a place which is wet enough to need to be wearing them. Very strange!

  5. Wonderful photos! Thanks for sharing your day with us. We had snow last night and I was surprised to find it still there this morning, but only a dusting. We had more throughout the day (which worried me slightly as work had taken us up into the hills), but it didn’t come to much.

  6. It sounds like you got the same kind of crazy weather we’ve been having–but–stunning photos. I can’t pick a favorite because I kept saying, “this one,” “no, this one.” Beautiful light (and shadows). The mossy branches look like snakes to me. The robin is so cute.

  7. Like many of your posts, this is like looking at a nature magazine with delightfully diverse subjects. I love the sparkling water you and Jackie both captured. And the cottony clouds. And the robin and delicate primroses. And… 🙂

  8. I was surprised by your weather, but I was delighted by the robin. It’s such a nice portrait of one of my favorites among your birds.

  9. Naaw, whenever you mention Robin, my heart flies out to Nugget. Disappeared, just the same as the owner of those wellies. I wonder if there is a body buried in a bog nearby. Did the killer leave them as a clue? Or did he/she also bury the wellies, and a random pony munching watergrass accidentally unearth them. Ooooh, endless possibilities. Maybe Paol Soren will write a story around it.

  10. Your photos have brought home the mood of the elements. The crisscrossing shadows in the woodland further deepen the atmosphere. The abandoned wellies look ominous. Was someone turned into a tree trunk around there?

  11. Wow, a cold wet blast Derrick, hopefully your mild spring weather will be back soon … and here in Geelong it’s another cool and windy Autumn day, at 17’C

  12. A possible explanation for the abandoned wellies.
    As youngsters, my lot used to play in a stream that runs between two of our fields. In dryer weather the stream had very little water but plenty of mud. Victoria frequently came home giving a piggy back to one of the younger ones because the wellies had become stuck in the mud. The wellies remained there until my husband was able to nip down and dig them out!

  13. I am glad the sun came out for those beautiful photos, Derrick and Jackie. Many places are seeing some strange weather this spring. It was below freezing here this morning, but dry.

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