DECEMBER 2022 · GROUNDED
The Whimble, Mid Wales
Radnor Forest, Powys
Christmas day. The Whimble is a quiet hill above New Radnor in Powys, the kind of place you go when you want to walk without thinking about it too hard. The route goes up through Radnor Forest's coniferous plantation before reaching the ridge.
Inside the forest, the light works differently. The tall dark pines close overhead and the floor below is thick with moss and ferns, a deep green against the dark trunks. In winter, that contrast is sharper — no deciduous leaf cover competing with it, just the vertical lines of the trees and the horizontal green carpet below. Where frost had reached the edge of the woodland, bare branches caught it in white against the evergreen behind.
It's the kind of woodland path that keeps its own counsel — you can't see far ahead, the scale is hard to read, each tree similar to the last.
The Whimble — December 2022
A woman with red hair walks ahead on the forest trail, her back to me, looking out across a break in the trees where you can see moorland and power lines and the forest edge. Two hikers further along the path, colourful coats, the trail narrowing ahead. The forest floor russet and red in one frame, green fern in the next, depending on which section of plantation you're in.
The trail disappears into the darkness ahead on a straight line. Dark trunks on both sides, the reddish needle-fall on the floor. It's the kind of woodland path that keeps its own counsel — you can't see far ahead, the scale is hard to read, each tree similar to the last.
The Whimble itself is unremarkable from the ridge, a round hill above the plantation. But the forest getting there, and the open Welsh landscape above it, was the point.
Tall dark coniferous trees in dense woodland with moss and ferns covering the ground
Two hikers in colorful winter clothing walking along a dirt trail through coniferous forest
Dense coniferous woodland with tall dark trees and lush moss-covered forest floor
Woman with red hair from behind looking across moorland with forestry and power lines
Hiker with red hair and blue jacket standing alone on trail through tall dark pine forest
Vertical coniferous trees in green woodland with tall dark trunks and forest floor below
Winter woodland scene with frost and bare branches among evergreen coniferous trees
Dark moss-covered tree trunks and lush green undergrowth in dense coniferous forest
Dense coniferous woodland with dark tall trees and verdant fern-covered forest floor
Forest trail disappearing into tall dark coniferous woodland with reddish forest floor