hares in the snow

Deep snow shrouded the village overnight, white and silent, covering the fields – where several hares were running through the cold morning







– the snowfall striped branches of a beech tree – a hungry kestrel perched alone on a treetop, frost-puffed, waiting for lunch – the path across the top of the hill was deserted –

– frosted ivy berries shivered in the cold –  in the garden the bird feeders were busy all day long with blackbirds, the resident robin, longtailed tits, blue and great tits, sparrrows – and a goldfinch

– the corner of the garden under the yew tree was smothered in white, even as never before in the place of deepest shade – and the east wind had drifted a bank of snow against the front door….

In his In the Country,  Edward Thomas writes of the ‘majestic quiet, of the destiny which binds us to infinity and eternity

the coldest day of the year

walking into the winter wood on this bitterly cold day a jay screeches and flutters off into the trees – a little owl hoots – the east wind roars into the treetops and wood pigeons scatter

nobody is about – the cold sun glares out

of a deep blue sky – casting shadows on the

tall thin trunks of Scots pine – and hazel catkins 

dangle pale gold in the bright light 

   the grass is crisp beneath my feet – the dead leaves frosted – I hear the mewing of a buzzard over the treetops – and the thin tseep of goldcrests in the fir trees

a close up view of moss on dead wood is to enter a forest, a green world

– my oak tree is blacker than ever against the blue blue sky –


as a half moon rises – and my spirits are restored

Far too much of civilised mankind today is alienated from nature. Most people seldom encounter anything but lifeless, manmade things in their daily lives and have lost the capacity to understand living things or to interact with them. That loss helps explain why mankind as a whole exhibits such vandalism towards the living world of nature that surrounds us and makes our way of life possible.....[Restoring that lost contact] will determine whether or not mankind destroys itself along with all the other human beings on earth.

Konrad Lorenz: The Year of the Greylag Goose, 1979