Night walk

The forest is dark and foreboding, not surprising as it's night, the sky is heavy with rain laden clouds, mist hangs in the trees and the scene is reminiscent of a Hammer movie set. The ground underfoot is sodden, the down pours of the past few days have inundated the land; Red Rise Brook has swollen beyond it's banks and now covers swathes of the surrounding valley. Although normally a gently flowing brook, Red Rise takes on a far different aspect when engorged, it's deep pools, log jams and hard to define channel, pose a formidable obstacle and a serious danger. Together the dark and flooded landscape stirred a primeval fear deep inside. As if on cue an Owl hoots and amidst the trees of the break, all dripping creating a sound like a hundred faulty taps, something stirs, Deer, disturbed by our approach break from cover and disappear out into the open heathland of Red Rise Furze Brake. It's easy to spook yourself on night walk like tonights, not until you climb up Rooks Hill do the imagined specters fade back into the darkness .