Walking in monotone

The last couple of days have been so much warmer. The snow has all but disappeared, but so also has that dazzling blue and white light.  Instead a soft, grey mistiness is draped around us. No panoramic views on our walk today, but a more subdued and veiled landscape lies in front of us. We look down, we peer closer, and we see things that are often lost in the big picture.

Nature's shapes and textures are revealed if we but lower our gaze; if we just look carefully.  Ripples on a puddle; a stand of silver birks shining out in the shadows; the silhouetted seed pods of the broom - still rattling in the wind, and the shape of grass frozen under frosted ice.

 Water is like smooth grey silk today, it looks colder somehow.  And the horizon is within touching distance.

We can also appreciate the geometry of the railway engineering work - straight, square, regular - the work of  Man, but with a poised elegance nevertheless

But we find branches and stones to play with.  We try to break ice on the puddles.

We have our very first picnic of the year.

 

And we know that colour will return to the world.