Heading west

I thought I'd go out for another landscape today and have decided (since the excitement of my Monday blip in the piggy field) that I've been neglecting the hills to the west of Winchester. The South Downs to the east are gorgeous but the west is just as beautiful, in places very accessible and, of course, eventually becomes Salisbury Plain, so what could be better than that?

This is a slightly stormy afternoon up on Stockbridge Down. The hurdles surround what I assume is a small neolithic burial mound. You see a lot of country from up here. And today above the harebells and marjoram I spied a buzzard riding the thermals and lots of ripe sloes. Would the National Trust mind me picking them to make sloe gin for Christmas? A moot point perhaps.

Happy Thursday evening - and Friday, of course xx