Sunrise over Palestine...

No, silly, the Palestine in Hampshire, of course! But you all knew that...

Another daft getting a train at 5.15 a.m. idea, so as to get a sunrise, getting off after just one stop on the London line at Grateley. Bleedin' freezing it was too and almost pitch dark and so I took the turn and but this allowed me to see the watercolourish palette of a sunrise forming. Subtle and swirling, if a little unspectacular.

Nice and misty, the sun broke through and then rose slowly. In the end, I just liked this a little more than the others, it's all about that magical line of trees and gentle palette - and the field of grass.

The colour has not been altered or brightened at all, I opened the shadows a little, giving more detail in the grass and added a light vignette, to bring the sky in a touch. No sharpening, either, the Tamron SP 70-300mm VC giving a superbly sweet sharpness.

As I approached the MOD ranges of Porton and Winterbourne Gunner, the bright watery sunlight misted up and then like a heavy cloak, started to choke the details in the landscape, then obliterated the sun - and then the entire sky. The easterly wind was bitter and the whole atmosphere was forbidding and uncomfortable. These conditions remained for the rest of the day.

Walked miles, with wooden fenceposts on the farmer's field side and concrete posts on the MOD's. Warnings "Keep Out - MOD Property; Danger, Hazardous Area" arose every few hundred yards in bright red and yellow. But were the crops of early oilseed rape that were within really that lethal? Or were the Military now growing their own bio-fuel for all their tanks, planes and ships??

Ten plus miles later and with soggy feet, as not even my Goretex North Face hiking boots could cope with the incessant wet grass, frosty at first but with no sun to dry anything off, there was no chance of either the vegetation or my size 10's from drying out.

Rescued by an unexpected bus that took me to Andover, so had to get a single ticket back to Grateley. Half hour wait, with a delay and so got chatting to the Polish station café assistant, which killed some time and allowed me to stay somewhere warm. Yes, she was overweight and a little cross-eyed and now I know everything there is to know about double glazing in Krakow...

My new 24" Monitor, which I am using for this, now, had a delivery date of tomorrow. Therefore, I was a little perturbed to find that the Courier had tried to deliver it yesterday, but the card had got buried under Takeaways junk mail. They tried to deliver it again today and to my relief, card no 2 said it was with a neighbour.

With rucksack still on back and mud all up my jeans I knocked on their door. And what a pretty young neighbour I seem to have, not overweight and without any trace of cross-eye! Things are looking up....and if I suddenly don't do Blip, you'll know why...

The screen is bloody excellent, like one of those upgrade from a grainy, flickering black and portable to a home cinema moment. OK, that feeling won't last, but you'll know what I mean!