Blowing Away The Boxing Day Cobwebs

I do hope you all had a lovely Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and were in the place you like to be, with the people you like to be with, doing the things you like to do at Christmas!

Due to work commitments we did not travel to see relatives this year but remained at home, which is just as well as the knock-on effects of the poor weather just before Christmas has contributed to a lot of travel chaos this year with many people not reaching their chosen destination.  We stayed home and counted our blessings for all the things we are grateful for.

This year though, the Christmas weather has been so varied and unpredictable its untrue.  Yesterday alone, we had heavy rain, thunder and lighting, wind, sunshine and a particularly noisy hail shower (we had no snow but the hail turned everything white for about 10 minutes!). 

Today though, we awoke to glorious sunshine and decided to get out for a walk on the South Downs for a bit of exercise and fresh air.

The sunshine and lack of wind has shot the temperature back up again and I was sweating in my new Christmas fleece.  Talking of fleeces, we came across these sheep who were enjoying grazing on a field of turnips.

My camera angle managed to capture a rare, two-headed sheep!

After the recent rains, there is still a lot of water about and flooding in the fields on the lower levels of the Downs, especially in the areas closest to the river.

But also some muddy footpaths which required careful negotiation.

I was reminded how much I love being on the Downs - the sunlight, clouds and shadows constantly play with the light and shapes of the hills and many local artists use this as inspiration for their work and crafts.  

I find it so uplifting to be amongst nature and its almost like a meditation in itself to be temporarily removed from the busy-ness of every day activities and traffic.  We certainly came back feeling uplifted and refreshed and vowed to return again soon.