Sunday 17 January 2010

Somerset scenes - part one

Just before Christmas, my friend Jane and I took a local walk 20 minutes just south of Frome around King Alfred's Tower. This is a beautiful area just on the Somerset/Wiltshire border near to one of my bird survey areas at Stourhead. On this frigid day we didn't see many birds, but it was a beautiful morning to be out and about. Here are some of the scenes from that day.
The sunlight through the bare larch branches happened to fall on a patch of still green leaves making them jewel like.We were hoping for Brambling and Crossbills on this walk, but didn't have luck on this day. We did come across a pair of Treecreepers and Coal Tits.I didn't particularly like where this path seemed to be taking us (into the deep dark part of the woods. Happily for us, the path bent around to the right at the end there and we carried on in sunlight.The dusting of snow before Christmas was more picturesque that bothersome and made this walk quite magical.This road with the snows of just a few days ago would've been quite impassable for my car, but with care, presented no problems on this day.At the end of our walk, we approached King Alfred's Tower, a well known folly which straddles the Somerset/Wiltshire border. Click on the link to go to a website to find out more about this building.There will be more wintry Somerset scenery in my next post....

7 comments:

Mary said...

You find so many nice places to take walks and search for birds :-) The walking is as much fun as the finding sometimes. I'm fascinated by the folly and probably would have taken a 100 photos. We just don't have stuff like that here. How interesting that it is triangular.

John said...

Jen,

I am sure I have been up to King Alfreds Tower some years ago, it was a lovely walk, bet it looked very special over the last week or so with all that Snow. But you chose the right time to go. Lovely walk.

John

Rural Rambler said...

Lovely, sunny walk. King Alfred's Tower looks to be right out of a storybook! It says the views from the top are breathtaking, I just bet they are!!!!

Anonymous said...

These are lovely scenes Jen and I know this is really nice area. Have you managed a trip up in Alfs Tower yet. We did it just a few years ago and its good views all around. Looking forward to the rest of your posts on this area.

Eve said...

Jenny! Everything looks like my woods and driveway but the Tower!!! The photos are chilly but beautiful!

Quiet Paths said...

These scenes remind me of the poems about woods by Robert Frost...
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

Jenny said...

Hi Mary, I guess I should've got closer and taken more photos, but we were on a mission that day and it didn't occur to me. Maybe another time, I'll get closer and climb up to the top!

Hi John, I never would have made it up those tiny country lanes in the snow, so yes, we did pick the right time.

Hi Pix, I'll defo have to do that climb up there sometimes and take some photos too!

Hi Roy, no haven't got up there as yet, but I'm thinking about it! (-:

Hi Evie, perhaps you should have one built! For birding! (-:

Hi Christine, thanks for the poem, even though we didn't see many birds, the walk on such a beautiful day with the frosty ice on all the branches was magical!