A WALK IN A QUITE QUIET WINTRY INTERLUDE

There was a short-lived winter blast with a snowfall last Sunday 19th February 2012.  We took advantage of a quiet window in the general weather turbulence, to go out for a walk.  I took my camera with me and was able to catch a variety of winter scenes.

At the harbour mouth there was a cold  North Atlantic winter sea edged with snow covered land across the far side of the water.

We moved on around to the sea front (on an esplanade) where we saw the sea swelling, curling into deep foaming waves.  It moved on at speed and dribbled towards outcrops of rock. The snow capped cliffs depicted, are about 21 miles away from where I stood. 

A sharp cold wind was blowing off the sea and though there was super reflected sunlight,  there was no way you could feel, other than cold.  That said,  the wonderful light brightened up everything and everyone.  An intrepid walker was enjoying a trot along the sand.   The fields had a thin coating of snow, allowing the dead stubble from the previous year's harvest to show through.  The sea constantly moved and the curling tips of the waves threw out high mists of foam.

This February the snowdrops have produced their flowers.  Last year the plants tested out the weather conditions, and because it was so cold, they immediately, popped their heads back underground, not to be seen for at least another six weeks!  They were very late.  This year there are lovely clusters of snowdrops to been seen at the expected time.

With the tree branches being bereft of leaves, it was easy to see pigeons and rooks looking for suitable nesting places. This pigeon was staying at its place.  The rook fluttered around a bit, moved backwards and forwards on the branch; the pigeon did not budge.  Seemingly unperturbed, it just looked at the visitor and sat fast.  It was not going to be moved.

Presumably, deciding it was not getting any due respect, that it was not going to obtain exclusive rights to a particular place on this tree, the rook took flight.