Hertfordshire & North Middlesex Area of the Ramblers' Association
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Winter images & country notes
Woods near Ayot St Lawrence
Winter sun, near Commonwood
Delights of Essendon: notes from a rambler
Dull this time of year ? Far from it. Sure, there's mud enough underfoot, slithery clay, splattering puddles. But when the sun is out, the air is crisp and fresh on the cheeks. Under the hedgerows, in the deeper gullies the frost still lies on leaves and fallen boughs.
Within the coppiced hillside, overlooking a swollen stream, a badger's sett upheaves the ground. Signs of fresh excavations, tailings from deep within the soil - paw prints in the freshest dig. Further on, signs of rooting-up, foraging for bulbs or shoots.
Beech near Essendon
The usual crossing point - a short leap from bank to gravel edge - is impassable; the summer trickle is now seven feet wide, the waters cloudy with fields' run-off. On to the footbridge.
In the meadow, amazingly thin sheets of ice lie stranded on top of the flattened grass, the floodwater now drained away. The ice crunches underfoot. Shards as large as plates can be picked up; the lens distort, splinter when tossed down.
The bridge is ingeniously waymarked - the Hertfordshire Way roundel is nailed onto one of the planks of the bridge.
Treachery on the single-track metalled road - apparently just damp, it is sleek with black ice.
The sunset is amazing glowing streaks of cirrus, sharp outlines of bare trees on hillcrests, hard shafts of light cutting across trunks and hedges. The sky is olive yellow.
Email: walking@ramblers-herts-northmiddlesex.org.uk
