Without getting overly obsessed with the weather, last weekend was somewhat wet. Inevitable really, the same friend with whom I had shared a somewhat wet walk towards Hurst Point was staying and as normal a degree of yomping was in the offing. I’m not actually averse to walking in the rain, at least we now have proper wet weather gear purchased after a salutary walk in Scotland one year, but you do have to pick your walks with inclement weather in the offing.

So having goaded the clouds with a sea wall walk on Saturday and found them only too willing to offload a considerable amount of water in our general direction, we opted for a more inland walk for Sunday. The reasoning being that trees equal cover if it all goes pear-shaped.

The Set Thorns inclosure near Sway is worth a wander around as it is a little more diverse than some we have visited, actually having a couple of hills in the Great Ashen Bank and the Oaken Brow. It is possible to wander into the camp-site situated on the Burley road side, but equally easy enough to avoid it if you know it’s there. This inclosure has the advantage of broad stone paths as well as muddy sidetracks, so whatever your bent short of fell-walking you should be happy. In fact on a previous visit, wife and I were somewhat surprised to see a lady taking her dogs for a walk with her motorised buggy.

Anyway with fair winds and just the suspicion of sun as we drove out, it looked like the wet weather gear might not be called into service, that is until we parked at the entrance and it started persisting down as if it had a quota to meet. Nothing daunted, we donned our trusty waterproofs and set out. One of the things I like about this particular inclosure is that you can wander in and out of it, taking in short tracts of Forest should you wish. More by instinct than design this is what we ended up doing. Strangely for the last weekend in the Easter holidays, we found few other walkers out to enjoy the bracing fresh air, well only three including one with a dog in fact. What we also found is that a lot of thought has to be given to where you intend walking if you decide to go downhill and walk along any hollows. Oh and it helps to have a rudimentary knowledge of which flora prefers to grow in excessively damp areas, although to be entirely honest, it would have been pretty tricky to have found anything that wasn’t an excessively damp area that particular walk.

Having traversed enough mud to fuel a serious attempt on the world mud pie making record, and as if to mock us when we finally decided to head back to the car over the top of the Great Ashen Bank, the sun comes out. Although it did make for somewhat warmer walking than is strictly preferable since we were engaged in a bit of a climb, at least we were treated to the vision of clouds of water vapour climbing skywards were the sun hit the soaked vegetation. All a bit Jurassic Park, though fortunately without any T-Rex sightings.

A bit of history. The inclosures are the timber plantations of the New Forest and those that survive today date from 1700 to 1968. There are two types, Statutory inclosures and the Verderer’s inclosures, with Statutory inclosures being the only areas in the New Forest where commercial forestry is practised. Though allowed in certain inclosures in the past, commoner grazing is no longer allowed in inclosures. They are now subject to various plans and initiatives which broadly seek to promote biodiversity and conservation. Hope that makes it clear then.

I could have a career as a weather personage. No sooner had I posted about the sun shining and everything being lovely, than we experienced a couple of inches of snow in very short order. Made getting into and starting the car a tad more lengthy than normal, but it made the drive to church very scenic. I’ve never really considered Southampton Road an area of outstanding beauty of any sort, natural or man made. But sprinkle it liberally with the fairy dust of fresh snow and the massive trees at the mini-roundabout take on a Disney-esque look and feel. It’s real hard to concentrate in a service when what’s mostly going through your head are the lyrics to Let It Snow. You know the one,

Oh the weather outside is frightful,
But the fire is so delightful,
And since we’ve no place to go,
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

There, now it’s going to be going around in your head all day. Sorry. Of course by the time the service ended, the snow had gone pretty much completely. Sun being the natural enemy of snow and all.

In some ways it’s a bit of a pity since the forest looks absolutely magical clothed in snow, just not normally at this time of the year. This week we have had the predicted bright sun from dawn until dusk (well nearly) and since the weekend is dragging itself into view …. it’s going to rain. Of course it is, we have a friend staying who is given to yomping through as much of the forest and shore as they possibly can in a weekend, so it’s time to dig out the wet weather gear methinks. With any luck we won’t have a repeat of a now legendary walk along (some) of the shingle bank to Hurst Point with a south westerly squall hitting us horizontally. Friend somehow contrived to be on the leeward side and being a good host I could hardly switch places could I? Since it was a. Late in the day and b. Late in the year, the fading light, such as there was forced an early conclusion barely two thirds of the way to Hurst Castle. Strangely we saw few other intrepid souls that afternoon. I’m not saying they weren’t there, it’s just that because of the lashing rain, the visibility was shall we say, a tad limited. So with my current track record, if I were to predict a re-run, what are the odds we will have wall to wall sunshine? It’s as well I’m not a betting man.