Welcoming in Winter with a Freezing Walk

December has arrived and with it the countdown to the beginning of a new year. I always reach this month with a mixture of excitement and a trepidation. Excitement about the coming festivities and all that Christmas brings; warm lights, cosy days, evenings by the fire, time with family and friends and a good excuse to just stop! But I also get a feeling of apprehension; another year is approaching its end. The years seem to go by so fast these days I can’t keep up, it feels like 2022 has only just begun but 2023 is already upon us.

I think the last few years with Covid-19 have had quite an impact on the speed of the years. It’s been such an odd time; days feeling as though they’re going so slowly but the years seem to have flow by with not much having happened in them. My family and I kept social distancing for much longer than most people, so it feels like all that is only just behind us. Although I have been grateful for the time of quiet and stillness through the multiple lockdowns, it has also been difficult to not have much freedom. I came into lockdown just leaving my mid 20s and already my 30s begin next year. Where did that time go?!

But on a more positive note the turning year does feel like a new beginning, a chance for change and unknown adventures to start. This year, though, I would really like to celebrate the Winter Solstice. Every year I say this but it always ends up simpler to just celebrate New Year, everyone else does and so it’s easier to have time off work and get people together. But Solstice seems like the more natural turn of the year to me, the day when a new year begins by the lengthening of days. It’s a point when Spring comes onto the horizon. Although I am working this Solstice I think I will try my best to celebrate it one way or another!

Anyway, enough rambling about New Years and back to December the 1st ~

I woke up early while it was still dark, made a coffee and sat in the warmth of my bed to read for a while. As I read I could see dawn unfolding through my curtains. The morning was beautiful, clear pale blue skies and a crisp chill in the air. As the morning grew brighter I decided I couldn’t miss this sunrise and to see the Winter months in.

Floss and I walked up to a field with a view down the estuary and inland to the town I live near. Mist hung in the dips of the land, almost glowing in the blue hour light. Beyond the mist the pale, washed out sky was beginning to turn an ombre of pink, orange and yellow. The ground had almost frozen but not quite, there was a slight crunch underfoot as we walked. I can’t wait for hard frosts this year and I’m hoping so much for snow!

I set my camera up to record the sunrise and Floss and I wandered around examining the seed heads and gorse flowers. Floss occasionally stopping to sniff the air as she walked. The sun was breathtaking as it came up, a bright disk of red and white over the horizon and through the trees. It cast the softest orange light that looked incredible through the gorse and seed heads and made the bracken glow, I love the colours of winter. We stayed for a little longer to watch he sun rise completely over the horizon and then headed home to go for a walk with my sister Willow.

Willow and I decided to drive the 25 minuet trip to the small mountain range called the Preselis, hoping to see the mist hanging in the valleys from above. As we drove the sun shone through the white cloud, creating rays of light and making the trees look so etherial. I was so excited to get to the mountains! But as we approached them all we could see was a thick cloak of grey.

The hills were covered in low cloud, I couldn’t believe that we’d driven away from the sun filled valleys and into fog! But we decided to do a walk anyway, even if we couldn’t see anything.

We parked down a small country lane near to a bridlepath that led onto the moutains. Under the cover of trees along the road the temperature didn’t feel too chilly, and we began to complain about all the layers we were wearing that we’d be having to strip off shortly and then carry the whole walk. But as we reached the foot of the mountains the wind suddenly hit us and it suddenly felt very wintry! We both wrapped our scarves tighter around our necks and pulled our hats down over our ears.

Binky, my parents Golden Retriever, had had an operation a few weeks before which meant she’d had to have her stomach completely shaved. But she trotted along happily, as if the cold wasn’t bothering her in the slightest, it made me feel like a bit of a wuss, in all my layers and still frozen…

Although it felt so cold the ground wasn’t actually frozen. The sun shone gently through the white fog, creating muted colours of red and orange on the foothills and valleys below the mountains. At one point the fog thinned enough to see the sun as a disk glowing like the moon in the sky, I tried to capture it but as I was correcting my settings on the camera the fog thickened again and the sun disappeared.

It was magical walking in the cloud, all the colours had paled and the landscape looked soft and misty, the rocky outcrops looming out of the white. I think winter might be my favourite time of year to walk, it might seem a bit mad with all the bad weather and layers you have to adorn. But the low light and muted colours of winter are so beautiful to me. Though I will probably say spring is my favourite time of year when spring comes around!