Spindrifted

View The Vortex

Thanks so much for the wonderful feedback to yesterday's shot and all also your concern. I may have been exaggerating slightly as to the extent of the peril, plus I should add that I also carried my mobile phone, something I don't usually remember to do when I am out on the moor. I was pretty safe really.

I headed out in much the same direction again today, but keen this time to complete the circuit via the flagged path and the Keighley Gate road. That I duly managed but it was certainly heavy going in places, the most arduous section being the old road itself, which was feet deep in soft, fine drifted snow.

The wind has been blowing strongly in the same easterly direction all weekend and it's been fascinating to see how the shape of the landscape funnels the wind through certain places, scouring the snow from some surfaces to build it up in others. Most incredible was the effect of the wind at the Twelve Apostles, a group of ancient standing stones previously blipped here. There is an eddying effect such that the wind creates a vortex around each stone, keeping it clear of snow. The end result is that each stone is now standing in its own beautifully sculpted hole. It looks almost as if they are rising out of the drifted snow!

Photography wasn't easy. I'd have loved to linger longer and spend more time but I was being snow blasted at this point and the warmth was being sucked out of my hands with every second that I had my big mittens removed. I hasten to add that I was still wearing inner gloves but they gave scant protection against the cold.

Other than this outing on to the moor it'd been very much a busy inside day. I'm in the process of down-sizing my life so more sifting through crap and de-cluttering of the house, plus some work that had to be done before being back in the office tomorrow. I think I've broken the back of it all now. It wasn't such a bad weekend to be inside! The forecast for the next few days suggests very little improvement. It looks like we're going to be blasted by these easterly winds for a while longer. Amazing to look back and see that this Sunday a year ago I was on the bike in shorts and shirtsleeves, the temperature in the seventies!