Winter trees

The trees may be devoid of leaves but there is still a beauty to their structure particularly against the bluest of skies. I find so often one or two pictures will provide the inspiration for a post.We were recently out on a walk, with camera in hand and each tree we passed seem to say "photograph me,"so that's exactly what we did!

The rolling Dorset countryside in its winter glory

The path had turned into a stream with all the rain we have been having.

This is the last visit to the willow tree that I have been following for the past year with Lucy at Loose and leafy. For earlier visits see my tab at the top of the page. I was hoping to capture a picture with the tree covered in snow, but alas it was not to be. If you look carefully you might see a slight covering of snow on the distant hills!

I hadn't walked this way for a while as it has been too cold and I was surprised to see one of the huge branches, which on my first visit contained a garden table has been cut down. I expect this is because with all the rain we have had in the past year there was a likelyhood of the branches blocking the stream. The tree looks rather ugly now but I'm sure new branches will sprout in the spring.

I found this video that fits in with this posts theme. The Winter Willow poem was written by William Barnes (1801-1886) in Dorset dialect and was put to music by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958). around 1903. William Barnes was born in Dorset and spent most of his life here, he was a minister in a country parish and wrote about country life and local scenery.

The pictures the accompany the music are obviously not local, but remind me of the wonderful winter pictures I have seen in blogs this past week.