Thursday, August 03, 2006

If you go down to the woods today ...

Just before the weather broke last week in a spectacular lightshow of lightning, thunder, and torrential rain - during which our inflatable paddling pool flew over the roof of our house into the road opposite - we took the kids for a walk in some very ancient woodlands about twenty minutes' drive from where we live in rural Warwickshire.

This particular area of woodland is called Old Nun Wood and is on the edge of a much larger and newer piece of woodland, but is itself extremely ancient and atmospheric, especially in those dark tense moments before a storm.


In we go ...






It seemed such a bright day when we set out, hot and sunny, the perfect day for walking in the shade of ancient woodlands.






Quite suddenly, the woods began to darken; here the gleam of fallen silver birches provides the only glimmer of light at ground level.






The first sinister rumbles of thunder are heard in the distance.





Time for a sharp exit, reaching the car only minutes before a violent downpour engulfed the Warwickshire countryside!

3 comments:

changapeluda said...

Oh cool! What a cool post!

Jane Holland said...

Thank you kindly, changapeluda.

I feel rather foolish, not having any shots of us, moments later, staring bemused through the car windscreen at the tropical storm raging about us, but alas, my camera actually failed as we were leaving the woods. The battery died, probably due to using so much flash in the poor light (though I turned the flash off in the end, to better capture the atmosphere).

Hence no exit shots of a scene not unlike the movie 'Twister' ...

J.

changapeluda said...

Our digital camera is famous for being fritzy right when we need it.

An interior car shot would have probably been steamy :)