Painted Sky

This year seems to have been a really special one for sunsets at the woods. Following on from the unreal skies I posted a short while ago, we had another stunning and unexpected sunset just before Christmas.

Not a promising start

I had actually just gone to the woods to feed the birds, and only took my little camera with me.  As I hung up the last of the feeders, I thought that the light was looking quite good, so I decided to go for a little walk.  The sunset was not that promising, and a bank of cloud was coming over, but I decided to wait a few minutes longer.  And then the sky started to turn pink and orange.

Starting to go pink

More and more colour

The colour started to develop until the whole sky was scarlet.  I headed down to the ponds to try…

Next week, on 16 December, we celebrate 65 years of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949.  They are certainly not ready for retirement, there are so many good things happening there.  But it is sad to report that our finest landscapes are still under immense threat.

Less than two weeks ago, the government launched its Roads Investment Strategy which includes several schemes affecting national parks, in particular the Broads, Peak District and South Downs.  As the excellent Campaign for National Parks (CNP) has pointed out, this is contrary to government policy on road building in national parks.

The UK Government Vision and Circular for National Parks and the Broads 2010 states:

There is a strong presumption against any significant road widening or the building of new roads through a Park, unless it can be shown there are compelling reasons for new or enhanced capacity and…