I started the weekend by walking with friends at Testwood Lakes Nature Reserve near Totton - although a bit boggy, it definitely felt as if Spring was in the air, as we watched a pair of Great Crested Grebes warming up for their courtship dance. That afternoon, I walked along part of the Clarendon Way at Farley Mount Country Park, just south of Winchester, before looping down through woodland and along farm tracks. It's a lovely route, with stunning views across the downs, before moving into ancient woodland and droveways. The route back features a great view of the strange monument that gives Farley Mount its name. Apparently, beneath it's gleaming facade lies a horse that survived leaping into a chalk pit during a fox hunt in 1733, was renamed 'Beware chalk pit', then the following year won a notable race.
Contrast all of that with the scenes today, as snow swirls around the flat, with the cats imploring me to make it stop because they want to go outside. My original walk in the New Forest had been cancelled, and as I was on a mission to get some new gloves (bad time to lose one as everyone has already bought them it appears!) I decided to walk into town along the Avon Valley Path.
Apart from being a tad slippy - despite my full outdoor gear - it was a pretty walk and surprisingly quiet! My way was accompanied by robins, blackbirds, wrens and dunnocks, all trying to find food. It was on the way back that the snow really set in, forming an icing-sugar dusting on sheltered spots, but whipped up into swirls in the gusty easterly wind.
Pretty though it is, prolonged bouts of cold conditions can really hinder certain bird species, particularly those that rely on invertebrates for food - let's hope the thaw is quick.
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