Another year has gone, where did it go! The weather has been mixed with one morning frosty and clear to grey wet days, I’ve got to the stage of wait and see, I get up in the morning look out and decide where I will walk or if I take the camera or not!

December when I look back gave me lots of opportunities to take some photos, between the grey and wet days there were some lovely frosty mornings.

The Stour flooded and it gave me a chance to take some pictures from near Hanford of the reflections and the early morning sun as it hit the trees from Little Hanford at the top of Melways Lane, with a backdrop of Shillingstone Hill and the old Lime Quarry.

I was hoping to get some pictures of the Stone Circle on the Winter Solstice but when I looked at the weather forecast it was looking grey on the 21st December. A couple of days before it was very cold so the image below was taken then, a glorious sunrise and it did turn out grey for the solstice!

Just before the end of the year we had a sprinkling of snow in North Dorset, I had to walk round the side of Hambledon hill to capture the dusting on Spread Eagle hill. Dorset has managed to miss most of the snow recently, good for getting around but I was hoping for some photos!

As always the wildlife is around but mostly keeping undercover in the cold weather, from Melway’s Lane I have been seeing a slow build up of the numbers of Little Egrets browsing the field alongside the cattle, the last count was twenty one. They do seem to like this area and so nice to see.