Tags
birds, cattle, clouds, fallen trees, landscapes, lapwing, Minsmere Nature Reserve, primrose, seascape, shoveler, storm damage, Suffolk, super blue moon, tank traps, walking, weather
The day after the storm that cut off our electricity, Richard and I decided to take a short walk to see what damage the wind had caused.
The wind was still blowing quite strongly and it was cold but we enjoyed being out in the fresh air.
This tree had been part of a hedge round a field. It looks as though it had been dead for a while before it was felled by the storm. The tree had snapped at ground level. Dead trees can be very useful as host to so many other organisms; providing food and shelter for many creatures. They are left in hedges until either the wind knocks them over or until the landowner thinks they are becoming a danger to people passing by on roads or paths.
This one could have been dead already, as well. The trunk had snapped three feet up from the ground and the tree was covered in ivy. Ivy (Hedera helix) is usually no problem on a healthy tree but it can smother weak trees and the ivy here would have caused a lot of resistance to the gale-force winds.
A week later we drove to Minsmere Nature Reserve owned by the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds). We decided to walk out towards the sea.
Here is a link which describes the anti-tank cubes at Walberswick – a village a few miles to the north of Minsmere.
We liked the cloud formation here. Stratocumulus undulatus, we have been told.
A slideshow showing some of the birds we saw on the Scrape
Here are some photos I took of the super, blue moon at the end of January
They are not as clear as I would have liked as I wasn’t using a tripod or our better camera. I include the blurred first one mainly for the beautiful colour of the moon as it rose.
Thanks for visiting!
derrickjknight said:
A good photographic record, Clare. Except for those across roads, the fallen trees in The New Forest have to stay where they are for the ecology.
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank-you, Derrick. Some farmers are leaving fallen dead wood for a while as long as it doesn’t get in the way but many of them cut it up for firewood straightaway! Minsmere Reserve had plenty of fallen trees which they leave as a matter of course.
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Richard said:
Au Clare de la Lune!
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Clare Pooley said:
😀 Thank-you, Richard xx
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Jill Weatherholt said:
Your photographs are stunning, Clare! I went back and re-read the post, just for another look. Beautiful!
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Clare Pooley said:
You are very kind, Jill – thank-you! xo
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margaret21 said:
Lovely skies, and the moon shots are spectacular. A good use of your time while your house remained unconnected to the 21st century!
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank-you very much, Margaret.
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lavendermoongirl said:
Lovely photos about your rambles. Gentle writing. It’s a shame to see so many fallen trees.
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank-you very much! It makes me sad to see trees damaged or knocked over by the wind too.
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lavendermoongirl said:
Me too Claire. There are too many. I don’t think trees are managed as they should be. They often look sad when they start to fault.
They do look gorgeous when their buds open and new leaves form. You can’t beat new spring growth! Here’s to spring! 😃
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Clare Pooley said:
Oh yes! I can’t wait! 🙂
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susanpoozan said:
I loved the sunset pictures and thought you captured that special moon really well.
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank-you very much, Susan.
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Laurie Graves said:
Strong wind can certainly do damage. In October, we had our own fun with wind and power outages.Beautiful pictures of the seaside and the moon.
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank-you very much, Laurie. I remember the awful week you had without power!
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Laurie Graves said:
Oh, yes! No fun at all.
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Andrea Stephenson said:
Fabulous pictures of the moon Clare, and such a sense of huge space and sky in the other photos, it looks like a wonderful windy day walk.
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank-you very much, Andrea!
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Liz said:
Great pics as usual! Lapwings are among my favourite birds – it is always a pleasure to see them. I would love to visit Minsmere one day – it looks to be a place full of wonder.
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank-you very much, Liz. Minsmere is well worth a visit – so much to see there.
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bitaboutbritain said:
Lovely, Clare. The skies are wonderful and I particularly liked the sunset over the Scrape. Dunwich is on my list the next time we’re in East Anglia. Hih – I used a tripod to take some shots of the moon and they’re STILL blurred!!
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bitaboutbritain said:
I meant to say “Huh” – “Hih” has a completely different meaning.
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank-you very much, Mike. Dunwich is a sad but lovely place; I hope you enjoy your visit there.
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Lavinia Ross said:
A beautiful January walk, Clare! Your area is so beautiful, even in winter.
I love that little primrose you found! Ours is still blooming away, and has been all winter.
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank-you very much, Lavinia. Primroses are such hardy little plants!
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Helen said:
Interesting to hear that fallen trees are generally kept in situ. Having just recently learned that trees are host to so much life, it’s great that not all is lost.
Fortunately, we don’t seem to have had any fallen trees around here.
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank-you, Helen. I think the farmers here only hang on to their dead trees if it is worth their while to do so, or if it would cost a lot of money to remove them. Some are ecologically minded but as we agreed in your recent post, the farmers have to make a living and if that is compromised by having a lot of dead wood on their land they will get rid of it immediately.
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Helen said:
It seems overall that farmers need to be given a lot more support to look after the environment. Since so much land is used for farming in one way or another, it would be great if solutions could be found which are more beneficial. Or rather, there are solutions but that requires a societal mindset change.
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Lisa G. said:
I looked up the lapwing – such an exotic looking bird and so pretty! Your sunset pictures are just wonderful, Clare, and the whole post is refreshing. The concrete cubes made me think about how awful it must be to have invaders in one’s country.
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank-you very much, Lisa. I love the lapwing too and it is becoming endangered too, because of loss of habitat. I think many of the birds I saw that day were winter visitors from Scandinavia. We used to have so many here during the summer but not any more.
I also think it must be terrible to be invaded and to lose everything. the only part of Britain to be invaded in the last war was the Channel Islands where enormous concrete submarine docks were built on the beautiful coast there. We were much more fortunate than many other countries in Europe. Britain has been invaded many times in its history and much suffering ensued. I pity all countries round the world who have been or are in danger of being invaded now.
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New Hampshire Garden Solutions said:
It doesn’t look as if you had too much damage but losing power is never any fun.
Nice to see the primroses in bloom. It’ll be a while before we see any here!
I’d love to be able to walk through a marsh so close to the sea. You got some great shots of it and the birds that live there. Someday I’m going to have to drive over to our little sliver of sand along the Atlantic.
I love the color of the moon in that first shot! Here they called it a blood blue super moon and it’s easy to see why.
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank-you very much, Allen. A marsh next to the sea is a wonderful place and there are a few around our coastline in Britain. The downside is the risk of flooding such flat land poses. A visit to the coast is always well worth the effort it takes to get there. I would love to see a post from you about your coastline and the plants you find there. We didn’t get the eclipse you got in the States so our moon wasn’t technically a blood moon. I managed to get a shot of it just as it rose which was very shortly after sunset and I assumed the orange colour was caused by the sunset.
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New Hampshire Garden Solutions said:
Maybe once I retire I’ll get to the coast. It’s about a two hour drive. Not terribly far but when you have only weekends free it seems like a long time to be stuck in a car!
I forgot the eclipse is what made the blood moon, but yours was still “bloodier” than I remember seeing here.
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germac4 said:
I love your wide horizons and big skies .. Not to mention the super blue moon. Lovely photos.
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank-you very much!
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tootlepedal said:
I liked your set of pictures at The Scrape in particular but you had a great many really good pictures in this post.
We used to play on the tank traps at Aberlady in East Lothian when we were young children on holiday there.
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank-you very much, Tom. Tank traps are good to play on at any age as my husband can vouch for!
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Jane Sturgeon said:
The land of the ‘big’ sky I remember so well from my childhood holidays. Thank you Clare and I love the feel of the Lapwings pics and the calf. Hugs and much ❤ flowing to you all ❤
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank-you so much, my dear Jane xx ❤ ❤ xx
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Marcia Strykowski said:
Such GORGEOUS scenery. Sorry about the downed trees, but I love the cows, primroses, and super moon pictures–just beautiful!
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank-you so very much, Marcia!
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KerryCan said:
These look like wonderful outings–I really need to bundle up and get outside for awhile–cabin fever is setting in! I took some photos of that moon, too–not as nice as yours but we had an eclipse here, too. It was great to watch!
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank-you, Kerry. It’s much easier for me than you to get out regularly during the winter as we don’t often have snow these days or long periods of freezing weather.
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quietsolopursuits said:
I loved the photos of the marsh along the sea, it’s similar to the fresh water marshes in places along the Great Lakes here. Of course the birds were very interesting to me as well, I recognized most, but not all of them. It’s a shame that you were without power for a while, but it is a good thing that at least some of the dead trees are left standing until the wind blows them over.
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank-you very much Jerry. These marshlands are fantastic places for wildlife as you know. Some of the ponds are freshwater and others are brackish saltwater which together support such a variety of creatures.
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Nathan Rogers said:
Lovely post, lovely pictures.
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Clare Pooley said:
Thanks so much, Nathan.
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Annika Perry said:
Clare, a beautiful photo journey of your walk and surrounding nature. There is such a wonderful sense of serenity and calm over them – although I imagine it was bracing! It always looks dramatic with a felled tree and it shows the force of the gales that swept through. Stunning moon photos to finish this lovely post. Thank you for sharing and hope everything is sorted following the storms!
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank-you very much, Annika. It was bracing but very pleasurable too. All is sorted now, I’m pleased to say. 🙂
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Ste J said:
What a lovely walk, you always find the good photo opportunities on your travels. We were at the beach for the super moon and only realised when we looked up from the water to see it. It looked really impressive.
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Clare Pooley said:
Thanks Ste J. The moon over the sea must have looked wonderful!
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Ste J said:
There were many stars out as well and the beach was pretty empty, with a barbecue smell hanging over the area and to warm us up after our night swim, a nice glass of brandy. It was bliss.
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Clare Pooley said:
Wonderful!
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D. A. Hartley said:
Thank you for sharing your magical day! Denise
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Clare Pooley said:
My pleasure, and thank you!
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Resa said:
Austere, beautiful and interesting!!!
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank-you very much, Resa!
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lovesdeepwaters said:
How beautiful! Awesome place for Photography
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank-you very much!
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mypeacockbooks said:
Wonderful photographs as always Clare ❤ ! I don't mind blurry ones especially of the moon, I've always enjoyed seeing the moon in the sky, there's something special and calming about it. I had never heard of tank traps though I think I may have seen some in the past, thank you for the pictures and the link. Lovely images of the cows too, I love the calf 🙂 It's a shame about the fallen trees though. I didn't know about dead trees being so useful. I'm not sure if a local tree I've seen in my local park is dead. There's a huge hollowed out hole right in the centre of the trunk. It's surprisingly sturdy for a tree with a huge hole in it. Can't think how that appeared though 😮
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Clare Pooley said:
Thank you, Cat. I can’t think why the tree in your park would have such a hole in it but I have seen trees that seem to cope very well with quite severe damage from lightening strikes and similar accidents. I love seeing the moon too. My younger daughter finds looking at stars and the moon disturbing. She doesn’t like to think of the size of outer space and our universe. She is a little agoraphobic.
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mypeacockbooks said:
I find the world of space simply fascinating (I think it’s my love of science fiction lol) but it can be a bit scary to think that we might be an insignificant tiny part of a much bigger world. There’s nothing wrong by the way with agoraphobia, I have had and do suffer it myself, especially when it comes to going into places with a build up of people. I hope your daughter’s agoraphobia doesn’t interfere too much with her life though ❤
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Clare Pooley said:
My daughter has similar problems to you – she finds it very difficult going into crowded rooms.
Thanks Cat ❤
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