Interloper

The usual walks were mobbed with people enjoying a New Year walk in the glorious unforecasted spell of sunshine. It was one of those days that you are aware that you live in a "tourist attraction" so often I have the paths and walkways to myself with only the odd dog walker for company especially at my preferred time of the days at dawn or dusk.

Luckily however there are a lot of incredibly quiet country lanes so we left the masses behind and walked along one of them. In the hour we were walking we only saw 1 car and that was after about 59 minutes.

The fields are still fat with the rain water from the wet winter/autumn and many have pool and almost lakes in their hollows and folds. No surprise really when you live in the North Shropshire lake district surrounded by glacial kettle holes.

After about 45 minutes I spied an entrance into a small coppice so after jumping a flooded ditch I pootled around in there with the camera for a few minutes until I came across this lone veteran tree in amongst its piney cousins.