I took these images a couple of weeks ago – they may be the last for a little while.
So… after spending most of the year rushing from one new wildlife reserve to another, I finally decided to sit down and finalise my Dorset itinerary last week. It’s something I normally do at least six months in advance, so it’s felt a little rushed. However, I managed to whittle down the list of locations to just eleven. With only three full days, that seemed more than enough. Then I added a few more that I simply couldn’t resist.
I‘ve planned something for the first sunset and the final sunrise and in between it’s a mad rush from one beauty spot to another. Most years I can plan days on the map without too much driving in between, but this year the sunrises are to the east, west and north, with the sunsets naturally all on the southern coast. All the daytime locations are in the north as well. At least the driving is all spread evenly, with two and a half hours each day.
I‘ve put everything in The Photographer’s Ephemeris, researched approach routes on YouTube and spent hours looking at photographs so I can have a better feel for the places before I arrive. The problem is that I’m not sure I will arrive at all, having fallen downstairs a few days ago. Without going into too many details, I will just say that one of our cats suffers from IBD and leaks a fair bit. That’s why our bed and all the cat beds are covered in towels. However, it looks as though he crept up to sleep on my long hair the other night with disastrous consequences. It was bad enough, but I was distraught knowing my husband was due to leave early for work that day and I was supposed to finish the animals on my own. He tried to calm me down and told me to get straight in the bath, but whatever the reason, I thought I was closer to the last step, found out I wasn’t and ended up on the floor.
I think it’s a sprain, but I haven’t been able to walk for the last four days and my trip is just TWO WEEKS AWAY! I’m still going ahead with the planning just in case, but although there isn’t much walking this year, there is quite a bit of scrambling over rocks along the coast. It could be interesting.
So whether or not you get some Dorset images by the end of the month, I thought I had better share these of Foxy, taken on a sunny afternoon. Foxy is a timid little thing and rarely sticks around when I point the camera in her direction. I was pleased with the image below, but only a short while later, she moved further away and I spotted Pearl’s eyes glinting as she lay on one of the boxes under the bed. Foxy knew she was there and I was lucky enough to capture her expression in the image featured above.
