Compensations

Apparently God only created November to allow him to separate out those humans who are true-born optimists from those who’ve simply read a book about positive thinking as a management theory. 

That holds pretty well for recent gloomy November mornings. But to stray into positive territory a little, at least we were not in a tailback on the motorway nor even wandering across the treeless areas that dominate this part of the eastern Peak District. That would have tested all but the truest believers. One did not need to be so self-delusional to find some pleasures this morning.

There are trees after all and they bring a sort of shelter and even some sense of companionship that cropped grass and low heather can’t give. Just a few of them retain leaves and others are decorated with lichens. 

Trees are also an attraction for deer especially where they grow in hollows such as this where the raging water races through to crash down over boulders into the gorge of Blacka Dyke.