Smoke on the Horizon

The sun set on another humdrum day, in the early evening I set out on another errand. Glancing up I noticed the crescent moon. After the cloud cover of the last few days it was a most welcome sight. I looked forward to my night time wander and the possibility of clearing my mind.

Sadly by the time I had finished many tasks and headed out into the night with the pack the cloud had returned to obscure the moon again. Hoping it would lift I took to the paths around a wood within a few miles of the near by town. As I reached the edge of the wood closest to the town I was bathed in the sickly brown/orange light reflected off the low cloud and the spewing sight of smoke from either the local factory or power station just beyond the horizon. Looking around the trees the light pollution was bright enough to put the trees in shadow and the silence from the lack of wildlife was quite eerie.

Turning my back on the town I headed into the darkness. Once I was far enough into the wood, the hoots of Tawny Owls within the tree cover and the screeches of a Barn Owl from the wood edge became evident and reassuring. By far the finest sight of the evening was the briefest glimpse of a Tawny gliding through the trees.