Under Dean Hill...

Got the first train, all one stop and 12 minutes and £4.70 return of it to Dean (Wilts). One of those stations where they count the total daily passengers on one hand. I had all two carriages to myself.

Dean is a village that used to be the location of Salisbury's nuclear bunker, under Dean Hill, which is a long, sharp chalk ridge with a height of around 150m above sea level. From the top you can (well, I saw and photographed) Southampton Docks' cranes and Fawley Refinery's chimney stacks about 16-18miles away. And Salisbury Cathedral Spire, about 7 miles away.

From the last I heard/read, the bunkers are now/destined to be a) wine storage for some paranoid connoisseur, b) a local musician wanted to make them the ultimate in sound-proof recording/practise studios and c) house an exclusive art collection.

Anyway, that is partly why the railway station still exists and I walked most of the way back home, getting a bus for the last couple of miles. A superb walk, though it was clouded over when I came across this field of rapeseed. Autumnal in feel, as a roll of mist had shrouded the wooded side - this was taken as the cloud broke up a bit. The sun even broke through from behind but a few minutes later had gone back in. Incidentally, it came back out again for most of the walk but I spent over half an hour in this one spot, using different focal lengths and waiting for the breeze-less conditions to move the clouds a bit.

The wide end of the 10-24mm Nikkor plus polariser - and a landscape I'm actually really rather pleased with. My sort of ultra-wideangle image with punch - and then some. I hope you like it too!

Thanks to all who just managed to sneak my Abstract bluebell blip of yesterday into the Spotlight.

Yes, I had to escape the confines of the PC screen but with a fine and productive walk under my belt, with the most glorious of scenery, I feel charged and having edited almost that I had to do, commenting on other's blips can now continue, though we (Virgin) had an internet breakdown (again) earlier, which is far more disabling than it really should!

'Love Over Gold' by Dire Straits is the music link - only in its title does it have relevance and is a lesser known Strait's song but still pretty good!

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