A Visit to the Summerlands

After Boxing Day's failed assault on Brent Knoll, an ad hoc return visit, this time more sensibly shod for the muddy conditions.

Brent Knoll must be a familiar landmark to anyone who's driven through Somerset on the M5, but it isn't immediately obvious from down below that the summit is an Iron Age hillfort,
   

with multiple ramparts following the contours of the hill.

It was also once the site of a Roman Temple.  

But the best bit are the views, today marred by a nasty yellow stain of smog.  I've done a bit of googling and apparently it's quite a common occurence over the Channel during periods of calm weather, the consensus being that it drifts over from the works at Port Talbot.

Anyway, here we are looking over to Steepholm and Brean Down ... 

... Crook Peak ... 

... Cheddar Reservoir and the Mendips ... 

... a new inland sea between Brent Knoll and Glastonbury Tor ...

... the mouth of the River Parrett and the Quantocks ...

... and down to Hinkley Point (boo) ... 

Look, here's those floods again. (Evidence of recent, not such calm weather.)  No hint of the misery of flooded homes from this distance; just the Summerlands remembering themselves.  

  

As we descended the Knoll, the half moon soared ... 

... and the last of the sun lit last summer's seed heads ... 

... and this winter's ivy.