Into The Wild & The Green

Decided to get part of my "two hours a week in the natural world" today, as after the downpours of the past few days, the sun came out. The amount of precipitation has meant that everything from nettles, to grasses, to weeds and leaf growth has exploded.  Paths that I walked along today are so different from even four weeks ago. Places where all the vegetation had been cut back are now so rich with greenery that it almost becomes too much for the eye. As I continued along my walk and the area became more remote the higher the plants became. At some points the grasses and nettles were chest high and it felt almost suffocating.
On the way back to my village I walked through a green wheat field that was almost like a thick, heavy carpet that moved beautifully in the strong breeze - it had an odd exultant sway to it. It filled me with an overpowering joy, especially when lit with a burst of sun.
Today's extra is the strange, abstract pattern of mud left on a path by the deluges of the past few days.
Today's main image is part of my Valley In Between project which I have been doing for quite a long time now. The valley itself does not give up images easily but I'm somehow drawn back to it again and again. It has moods and darkness and light , it can look beautiful and ugly and flatly bleak yet I can't stay away for long. As I was walking it's length today there were signs attached to fences and posts declaring the closure of this artery until some time in September. I'll really miss not being able to wander and capture it's ordinary but unique strangeness.