A walk through a biting wind and warming sun. Stepping between the the seasons seems quite appropriate with the nearing Equinox.
The paths were quiet of people, but the trees were full of song, frivolities, and flirtation from our feathery friends. There was chasing around bare trunks and companion feeding, while some were carefully choosing twigs and bark for their nests. With my attention taken to the boughs, the blue skies poured the sun through the trees, which made me squint, but that biting wind quickly changed the brightness to cloud-covered skies and back again! I walked through the abundance of brightness and the thickening clouds with nature, as she, with me, leaned into the light and reflected into the cooler shades. Larch is starting to show its newly shooting pine leaves and soon will be peppered with cerise larch roses. Blackthorn is flowering with delicate white blossoms and spurge is lining the woodland's edge.
The trees are holding the balance of the equinox as they are still adorned with shells of last year's fruits and seeds, but new, fresh growth is stretching into the light. Ponies are starting to show their stretched bellies with blooming babes and I could hear the distant call of a goshawk.
Stepping through the gate onto Bratley Plain was a complete contrast from the trees bursting with new life. I could smell the charcoal with a click from the gate, from the recently burnt heath. Ponies foraged between the black jacks and ash-covered heath. A buzzard circled above and skylarks sang from the skies. It may have looked bleak, but it was another reflection of nearing Ostara as the new life pushes through the old, which has been burnt away.
However, I find it questionable to be burning as the ground-nesting bird signs are knocked into the ground.
Walking at Latchmoor yesterday we said the same thing. We could see the smoke as they were burning at Coopers Hill off snake lane. Just don't understand why now after the last few dry weeks.