Soft Sizzling Rain

Saturday, 16th November 2002, West Yorkshire

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On a dim, wet afternoon the canal-side hawthorns, devoid of leaves but still covered in berries, are like a bank of crimson-black smoke.

The pattering of soft rain on the dark water is barely audible but when I turn towards the pylon wires that cross the canal there's a sizzling, like sausages frying in the distance.

There's a group of scale-topped mushrooms growing from the grass at the foot of the hedge.

A wren that has been investigating the canal bank below us zooms off across the canal like a little Exocet missile. Two cormorant fly, one after the other, at pylon height downstream above the Calder.

Richard Bell,
wildlife illustrator
E-mail; 'richard@willowisland.co.uk'