Gold I bring

Once again, I'm confined to the Settee of Suffering with another flare-up of shoulder impingement syndrome. I'm trying to get myself into a mindset where I can advocate, in the New Year, for finding a longer-term solution to this than missing work, not doing any long drives, and stuffing myself full of painkillers.  

In the meantime, since I'm not going anywhere, here are some photos from a recent walk on Lawrence Weston Moor, which I was visiting for the first time.

I tend to think of hills topped with granite outcrops when I hear the word moor, but here we're on the Severn floodplain, where moors are low-lying basins into which the river spills at times of flood - or did, every winter, before the rhines were dug in - probably - the 15th century. (And still do, on occasion, when they are overwhelmed.)

In any event, it's a welly walk in all but the driest months of the year.

Our route took us in a loop around the nature reserve. Although it's right by the M5, it wasn't too hard to blot out the sound of traffic. 

A short stretch of boardwalk takes you over the wettest section of the walk.

Haws

Old Man's Beard

Reedmace

A dewy leaf on dark winter water

Under the mistletoe

The road leading to the footbridge over the motorway

I was so glad to be there when it was bright and the sun was turning the reeds to gold. It made me want to pocket the whole day, to take out and remember on grimmer winter days. 

A Winter Solstice Advent Calendar ... and a road trip to Wiltshire and Wales

I suffer with the dark in winter, and December can be a real struggle for this and other reasons, so this year I decided to post a Winter Solstice advent calendar on my Facebook, to keep myself focused on the brighter days.

Here are the photos I chose, all taken in Bristol: at Blaise, Stapleton, Badock’s Wood, Horfield, the Floating Harbour, Filton, Purdown, Eastville Park, Lawrence Weston moor, and Three Brooks nature reserve in Bradley Stoke. 

The astute will notice there are only 20 photos and this year’s winter solstice falls on the 21st. This is because on Day 6, I couldn’t resist posting my little video of the Santas on a bike in the Floating Harbour.

One morning there was a stunning sunrise. I was headed due east and utterly mesmerised by it, but couldn’t take a photo because I was driving. Here’s what it looked like at daybreak, just before I left home.

I was on my annual Christmas trip to Wiltshire, to pick Jinny and her dog Millie up and take them to meet her parents at Pont Abraham Services in Carmarthenshire, who would drive the third leg of the journey to New Quay. 

By the time I arrived in Hilperton, the sun had risen into the thickening cloud and it looked a lot less stunning, but the canal, and Jinny and Millie's company, was anything but drab. 

It was great to be on a road trip and outside of Bristol for the first time since August, when my shoulder flared into huge pain that lasted for weeks. Sadly, there are no more photos, mainly because I was driving, but also because the weather took a drastic turn for the worse, and by the time we passed Cardiff, a very wet and sticky rain was falling - the sort that throws up a blinding spray and requires you to put the windscreen wipers on at full speed. At times standing water crashed across the carriageway like Hokusai's wave, but my charges were deposited safely and I made it home in one piece too. 

Millie, who is a very good dog indeed