NOVEMBER CONTRASTS.

Today after a night of rain the weather seemed set for a dry day at least for a while ...

 the sun shone brightly and between passing, overhead clouds highlighted the landscape.

The last remnants of leaves on some of  the beech trees, glowed bright in the sunlight.

But in the darker shades of the old pine forested area, raindrops still dripped off the pine needles. Caught in the November sunlight these last few remnants of rain, glistened like mere temporary diamonds and the sphagnum moss mounds were bejewelled too. Underfoot the going was soggy and muddy, not that the leaf diving dog minded in the slightest.

There were deep, recently water filled courses to splash about in, the scents of a recently deceased vixen to sniff. He was just glad to be out and about and to be honest, I was struggling. As he sniffed, I sneezed, As he caught a scent, I coughed. It was great to be out and about but after a recent fall my hips were feeling rather fragile and very sore. I quite envied his enthusiastic energy and this from a dog diagnosed with crepitus of the two fore joints, but his decrepit owner was struggling.

There is a saying, "Every cloud has a silver lining." and this morning the clouds were definitely silver rimmed with bright sunlight and as the clouds moved their shadows across the landscape, the ever changing scenery was really quite magical to observe. One minute the land was in shadow, the next minute held in a spotlight of brilliant brightness that brought the russeted autumnal colours to vibrant life. Despite feeling slow and grotty, it was good to be out in the fresh November air.

There were small new growths to be observed like this tiny fungus pushing up through the deep moist carpet of sphagnum moss. Blink and you miss it. It really does pay to keep your attention focused on the ground as well as on the huge  and dramatically changing skies up above. Miniscule details can reveal so much.

And then there are the larger details such as this moss encrusted stone caught in the recent flow of extra water flowing across the moorland after a full night of yes, yet more rain.

But the continually  changing contrast between light and shade is just simply mesmerising.

As I took this photograph, a green woodpecker flew into the bare branches of the beech trees. The colour of it against the leaf bare beech was bright and lovely to see.

This excursion tired me for the rest of the day but ...

it was worth the effort.