This was taken last week during our vacation in Southwest England.  We spent a few fun days poking around Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, glimpsing a side of England that I had never seen before.  I had previously spent most of my time in England in Brighton (about an hour south of London), which has a completely different atmosphere and pace of life than what I experienced in the Southwest.  Brighton is bustling, busy, throbbing with culture and counter-culture.  The areas I visited in the Southwest were comparatively much more quiet and rural, with a relaxed, easy-going atmosphere.  Granted, we did tend to spend more time during our vacation touring the national parks, rather than seeking out big city life.  

During this trip I really fell in love with the moors.  The first time I saw moorland in Wales, I have to admit I wasn’t very impressed.  It looked scrubby and boring, with not much vegetation.  I much preferred towering trees, falling leaves and wild bushes of edible berries.  However, the moors grew on me over time.  I’ve come to really love the sense of bleak desolation and moodiness that accompanies the moorland.  The colors of the vegetation are often beautiful, ranging from burnt orange and crispy yellow to drab olive green and patches of violet.  Add to this the atmospheric hues of washed out blues, greens, and blue-greens comprising the undulating hills in the distance, along with the often grey bundles of clouds trundling above, and all-in-all it becomes a rather impressive, thought-provoking environment.  Flocks of grazing sheep and wild ponies are often sprinkled around the hills, alleviating the desolate atmosphere with their lively and innocent presence.

I also have to admit that I fell in love with the moorland even further after seeing the 2006 BBC adaptation of Jane Eyre, which was aired recently on the weekends just before our vacation.  I haven’t read the book yet, but I really enjoyed the BBC version, and felt there was something endlessly beautiful about Jane’s desperate and tragic wanderings through the empty, unwelcoming moors.

But, tragedy and desolation aside, I managed to snap a slightly more happy photo of the moorland in Exmoor National Park.  This shot was taken near Dunkery Beacon after rainfall.  It was a perfect rainbow, and I’ll save the shot of the other end of it for another day.

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