Helena under the big sky above Minch Common

Pip stayed overnight and joined us with J. at a cafe in town to have a Birthday Breakfast for Helena. He had to leave by lunchtime to return to Bristol, so I suggested to Helena that we go for a breath of fresh air up on to Minchinhampton Common where we could see the sun was shining.

By the time we reached there clouds were beginning to encroach so we parked on the centre of the common and just walked away from the car. I had my big camera only and immediately discovered the battery was virtually dead, with warning lights flashing. I wanted to capture the sky and the light on the grassland while Helena wanted to go exploring a bit further away towards the Bulwarks, the remnants of the Roman ditches and banks which you c an see just behind her in this picture. From there she found an image to blip as well.

I heard the song of skylarks just after leaving the car and when Helena returned we just stood listening and then spotting several of them, both in flight and then on the ground. We spent a while just watching them feeding on the ground and wandering about avoiding other humans, sometimes having to take short flights to keep there distance. I do so love being there with the skylarks, and have determined to return very soon to continue the quest for ultimate images of flying skylarks.