December 4, 2007

Today I took a bike ride just a little way outside of Swavesey to watch the sunset. The sun sets here really early, so I left at 3pm to have enough time to bike out and not have to rush. Well my trip out was well worth it- the sunset was stunning today and I had a great view out over the Fen Nature Preserve. But first- a look at the famous English hedgerow. :) The road on the way out is dirt and is lined with hedgerows. Hedgerows are cool- they're basically trees planted in rows, that get whacked down every year or so, so they have big thick trunks and teeny little branches. They're important for wildlife because they allow animals to travel along the hedgerows to different areas of the field. Without them the fields are devoid of animal life.

I found this very small cemetery on the way out to the nature preserve. It was interesting that they have a garden on one side, and the cemetery on the other side...a bit weird to me that the cemetery is providing fertilizer for their crops! Kind of a yucky idea.

A hedgerow with the windmill in the background.

When you get closer you can see that the hedgerow is made of trees.

I'm bad about taking pictures of other stuff and not taking pictures of me! So here's a picture of me. My cell phone camera has a great little mirror so you can see yourself and if you're in the picture or not. What will they think of next?

The ground in these is dark because I had to reduce the exposure for the sunset, otherwise it was washed out.

Isn't this cool? My camera has a panorama feature that helps you line up the 3 shots! Unfortunately the exposures are a little different. But still cool.

Swavesey is a nice place to live with tons of parks and places to hike- since it's so warm here and will be all winter (compared to Michigan) I hope to brighten your winters with beautiful pictures of the English countryside. :)