Into the forest

Mist and fog give the woodland a mythical, magical quality. Perhaps the couple are tentatively venturing into Mirkwood where there are elves and giant spiders, but then perhaps it's a bit too cold for our 8 legged friends.

The snow settled again after a bit of a thaw yesterday evening, and this morning there was freezing fog. The fog lasted all day, though the frozen droplets and snow on the tree branches melted as I was out, and the foggy silence was punctuated by the sound of water dripping everywhere.

I walked over Arnside Knott and back down to look at Arnside Tower in the fog. This was the first proper walk I have had since the man flu struck a week ago. On the steep slope below the Tower I met a sledging dog, a retriever lying on his side and tobogganing downslope, and with a distinct smile on his face. His owner said he has a video, 5 minutes long of him tobogganing down Ingleborough.

The extreme temperatures of the continent have maybe caused the flocks of redwings and fieldfares to move west to Britain. Today there were many fieldfares chack-chack-chacking unseen in the fog. Until this last week, there had been very few reported from this area. The yearlist thereby moved on to 90 species.