Thick fog today – but I struck out with my camera anyway.
Despite the title, I have no dog – it’s more Me + Mud + Fog – you see, as I walked across the fields it was muddy and foggy – combine the two and you have ‘mudoggy’ (never mind! you had to be there!)

At least it was bright fog – the sun was a definite presence, despite not being able to break through the blanket of fog.I was making my way to Drover’s Wood, in Upper Breinton, a tiny wood established in 2001 by the Woodland Trust.

 
 
 
 
 
Fog always makes the countryside seem more mysterious and intriguing. Take this orchard, for example

or this monster oak tree –
   
– difficult to appreciate its size here, but  it towered above me like something out of a fairytale. At the beginning of my walk, trees loomed out of the fog one by one to mark the path

and along the hedgerow, brightening up the gloom were some ‘umble’ umbels
   
Inside Drovers Wood the well trodden path had turned into a quagmire
     

and I didn’t come across another living soul, even though the wood is popular with dog walkers (probably all tucked up at home with a mug of cocoa!)
If you follow the most direct route back to the main road you come across this wonderful weeping willow – in the summer it forms a giant green umbrella over the footpath. Today it looked just as magnificent – from one side the curtain of bare branches just brushing the ground, and from the other its silhouette against the winter sky with another tree just visible behind it – slightly eerie but still spectacular.



Once on the main road I was back to civilization – cars with their headlights on (don’t know if we are the only place blanketed in fog today -I think it’s fairly localized, but I’m sure there will be reports later of traffic accidents caused by the fog – usually are!
Ah, is that the bus I see in the distance?

I wonder if he’ll let me on with these muddy boots?