We have reached Autumn. It is raining. I'm standing next to a stone - Triscombe Stone high in the Quantock Hills. The date; Wednesday, September 2nd. It is the first time I have needed to wear waterproofs since mid May. What a summer!!
The incessant heat over recent months curtailed my project to visit all of Dorset Wildlife Trust's nature reserves in a twelvemonth. That, and an unbelievably busy summer. Thus, with the project amended to 'I shall visit all these reserves in all good time' I'm back to general blogging.
What isn't obvious in that image above was the near zero visibility on the highest point of the Quantocks - Will's Neck. And wind. And rain. That weather came as quite a shock after months of dry, sun drenched days.
I'd come up here with Mrs Wessex Reiver to recce a walk due to take place the following Sunday. I wasn't leading it, that was being expertly managed by the Edward Thomas Fellowship. But, despite visiting this Natural Landscape regularly, this end of the Quantocks is lessser known to me. I'd heard the views were stunning. I'll take their word for it.
However, Sunday arrived, accompanied by warm sunshine. And views. They are quite something. Thirty or so people took part in this organised morning walk with readings from Edward Thomas's canon of prose and poetry. Followed by lunch at the Rising Sun in West Bagborough. Later, myself and another lady ascended nearby Cotherstone Hill, destination point of Thomas's 'Grave of Winter' from his book In Pursuit of Spring. For both of us this was a first, and for me I wondered why I'd never visited this hill before. On that clear day we could see for tens of miles in every direction, our arrival heralded by a pair of ravens playfully sky-writing their own poetry in the keen 'Islands of England' updraft.
It was a perfect ending to a wonderful day. Summer has ended, yet the creative energy to write is returning accompanying the shorter day length. I do enjoy long summer days, less so the heat of 2026.
