This morning I did the earliest start on our rota, 04:50. Since June the days
have been getting shorter and now 04:50 is truly night time again. The first
part of the duty is driving ‘Not in Service’ to Bournemouth and as soon as I got
onto the M27, driving westwards, one of the compensations for an early start
manifested itself; a beautiful full moon right in front of me. As I crossed the
water meadows either side of the River Test the moon lit the mist which hung
only a few feet deep above the meadows. My route then crosses the New
Forest which isn’t all forest as the name suggests, much of it is open heath
including a large section of my journey, and here the moon lit the landscape in
a beautiful way, everything being discernible but in monochrome like an old
photograph. The moon was so bright that the headlights didn’t intrude enough
to destroy the beauty of the moonlight.

By the time of the return across the New Forest, shortly after 06:30, the sun
was up but the mist had risen and was taking the brightness out the sun. I
was able to look directly at the perfectly round red sun; it appeared to be the
same size as the moon I’d been looking at earlier. The light was now enough
to bring the colour back into the landscape which was predominantly the
purple of the heather. After the heathland there is some grassland and there
the deer were feeding on dew soaked grass.

Early starts aren’t always bad :-)