Up early for sunrise over the Marshwood Vale on the south western edge of Dorset to witness the rising mist over the surrounding levels. The first day of September and it true feels as though summer has been and gone…

A last minute decision to head out in search of a sunset lead me to this location on the West Somerset coast. I managed to find myself an original take on an oft-photographed subject but had to settle for soft light in the absence of the hoped-for colourful sunset. Moments after this was made the wind carved ripples were torn apart by an inattentive dog owner’s “he’s-just-being-friendly” mutt come over to investigate the curious person lying on the sand with a box that clicks…which subsequently got a showering of sand. Thank you.

It might be something to do with the dust thrown up by the barely pronounceable Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull but the sunsets over recent days have been spectacular. So, despite the knee-jerk air travel doom-mongers out there who crippled the travel plans of thousands, lets make the most of it back on home turf and enjoy one of nature’s little wonders.

I was not the only one either…

Cleaned by nature. What’s not to like? dynamic lines, repeating shapes…perhaps a reasonable composition too. Identified as a deer thanks to a nearby pair of intact hooves. Who ever got to it has completely stripped it clean, what I find remarkable is the location I discovered it; lying exposed in the center of a track in a floodplain area. Perhaps I had disturbed what ever dragged it there to pick at?

The rapid freezing of a small woodland stream turned the surface into something you might expect to see down a microscope, not with the naked eye…