Whilst many January days are just dull and grey with added mist and drizzle, some January mornings on Dartmoor can be quite dramatic as one wakes to white frost and clear blue skies, with mist in the valleys like a shallow sea of grey.
On such spectacular mornings it is wonderful to go for a walk as the sun begins to come up, whilst the cattle and sheep still have frost on their backs with great clouds of condensation from their breath, and the crystals of frost in the hedgerows are like diamonds of ice. As the sun rises, the mist dissipates, clouds of mist rise from the streams and rivers and the frost melts except where it is in the long shadows, leaving the trails from livestock and wildlife in the frost shadows.
Crepuscular rays of morning sunlight breaking through the hedgerow onto an icy country lane above Moretonhampstead, on Dartmoor. (Nikon D800, 1/180, F8, ISO-400) 
The track from North Bovey to Barne Court in the morning frost. (Nikon D800, 1/750, f8, ISO-400) 
Cattle covered in frost, their breath hanging in clouds of steam, gathered around a feeder in the morning frost outside Moretonhampstead, Dartmoor. (Nikon D800, 1/45, f4, ISO-400) 
The warm early morning rays of sunlight illuminating a cattle barn on a frosty Dartmoor morning. (Nikon D800, 1/180, f8, ISO-400)
Leave a Reply