A minor road from Leicestershire into Rutland crosses the Eye Brook and climbs in a series of twists and turns to the top of Kings Hill. On the last but one bend a stand of beeches crowns a bluff of land that gives panoramic views of the Beaumont Chase below. I always slow down here, and often just get out of the car by a gate and stand listening to the sighing of the wind in the branches. There is something very special about this place, and one of my New Year resolutions is to find out more. Early yesterday morning a heavy ice laden mist was covering the hilltop, and once again the boles of these trees drew me in. It was eerily quiet, and brought to mind Robert Frost's poem Stopping by Woods on A Snowy Evening, the last verse of which is:The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
If you're travelling too, please take care. And a very merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.
15 comments:
very good - carry on - marvelous
And Happy Christmas from Gloucestershire, also a land of beeches and, this morning, ice.
also - i'm not quite sure why but i think one of the reasons i've retained my enthusiasm for old Frosty is that i've always found his stuff easy to memorise, it just seems to be easily accessible in the brain when i feel the need to recite some.
Merry Christmas from a sadly snow free Wirral...I look forward to future posts.
Your Christmas post last year got me reaching for "Wind in the Willows" and this one did too. Maybe it's because the perspective of those beech roots in the snow is rather like that of a mole, trying to find his way through the snow-covered Wild Wood.
Thanks for keeping me and many others surprised, delighted and entertained by Unmitigated England this year.
This is the North Buckinghamshire disciple and his lurcher, just signing in to associate us both with these postings of goodwill and thanks.
As the Sainted Roy "Chubby" Brown (a.k.a Royston Vaisey ) would have it,"It`s been a ******* pleasure !".
Happy Christmas,everyone !
KBO !
Merry Christmas Peter and all. Thankyou for all the posts throughout the year, regards from Majorwheels
Beautiful, those Beeches. More new year resolutions are to read more poetry and be rather more aware of the beauty around me. A joyous Christmas to you and all followers.
Thankyou everybody, very much. Off to stare at those trees again.
Happy Christmas to one and all. And thank you, Peter, for a spledidly Unmitigated Blog. Off now to spend Christmas by the sunny Sussex seaside, for once. Good luck to everyone in 2010.
Beautiful photograph.
Hope you and your family have a merry Christmas.
Have a super-Unmitigatedshire-Christmas
Hoping you had a very Merry Christmas and wishing you a Happy New Year!
That photo is completely captivating-- and really could be a companion piece to the Maxfield Parish "Hilltop Farm, Winter" hanging on my family room wall. I feel I could just step right into it!
So lovely-- thanks for sharing it!
"Circe"
Leave it to me to misspell Parrish's name when I know full well-- here is a link to the work to which I referred: page 207 There are other sources online to view, and even though this one doesn't perfectly capture the detail color or light, it's a tad bit better than the alternatives I found and though you must go to page 207, the other works are so beautiful, I thought, why not? Enjoy...
http://books.google.com/books?id=l9JDROoxawoC&pg=PA189&lpg=PA189&dq=Hilltop+farm+winter+maxfield+parrish&source=bl&ots=9cZTneR8jg&sig=Xd9hDMBZ-BUYgvA9hp9T9-yWZzE&hl=en&ei=n-k3S932IYa6NfqWnYEJ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CCcQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=Hilltop%20farm%20winter%20maxfield%20parrish&f=false
Post a Comment