Mud, Glorious Mud (2020, week 1)

Welcome to 2020! The walks so far this year have been characterised by mud, lots of it. The gateways to access the fields along the parish brook are well-used and have turned into mires that suck at your wellies and leave them caked in thick, sticky mud. This is an annual problem, usually eased by frosts that turn the earth as proverbially 'hard as iron' yet this winter has been notably lacking in frosts so far. The rain, on the other hand, has been abundant and boggy areas abound in response. 

The island (in field 160, just by the drove off West End Lane) has been flooded for at least a couple of months now, though the water appears to be (at least temporarily) subsiding. It was very deep before Christmas with the footpath completely invisible beneath the water.

The flooded island on 13/12/2019

Unsurprisingly for the middle of winter the flora is largely dormant. The trees are bare, the hedgerows are bare, the waterways are largely clear, and the fields are doing good impressions of water meadows. Though there is some life, if you look. In the still waters of the rhynes yellow flag irises are starting to sprout new leaves. And along the drove off West End Lane (I'm going to have to come up with a better name for it, let's call it the middle drove, and the drove off Nailsea wall as the end drove), so on the banks of the middle drove, just down from the gateway to field 160, there are winter heliotropes in flower. 

Winter helioptrope (Petasites fragrans) on the bank of the rhyne along the middle drove

I've not seen these flowers before but there is a significant stretch of them. You can smell them before you see them - their scientific name of "fragrans" is apt. They have a sweet smell that is quite lovely, and very heady in the winter air. 

Birds are largely absent beyond overwintering swans and little egrets. There are plenty of robins already staking their territory for the spring, but the wet and overcast days has meant that most are staying hidden and even when they are out the poor light makes it hard to see them.