Roaming The English Countryside On A Cold Morning

I woke up this morning with just under six hours of total sleep. Lately, I've gotten into the routine of waking up incredibly early, making coffee, and writing a review of any films I had seen the day prior. It has managed to become a part of my process into waking up my brain to reduce laziness and procrastination.

Though, usually, the weather isn't that great. Lately the days are filed with grey clouds that hang above you, sucking out all energy you have from the moment you wake up, leading to tiredness around the middle of the day. It's hard to stay motivated when you wake up and immediately have to turn on lights, so today, on the rare time that there was no grey clouds above, I went by my usual routine and, once finished, packed my backpack with my DJI Mini 2.

I filled a thermos with hot tea knowing I might get both thirsty and cold during my travel out into the countryside, and gave myself multiple layers of thick clothing. I had no idea where exactly I'd go, but I didn't care. I just felt the excitement of finally being able to enjoy the day outside knowing I wouldn't be rained on.

Despite the layers of clothing, the cold air was relentless. I kept my hands in the pockets of my coat for the most part, trying to keep them from going numb as I walked into the countryside, through fields of green, brown, and the reflections of clouds and clear blue sky that sat in the puddles below me.

Each breath felt like I was inhaling small fragments of ice that filled my lungs. While each step I took seemed more out of desperation to build warmth rather than reach a specific destination. I loved it. The sky above me seemed to resemble the colour of blue that you'd only really expect to find in a tropical water, and I wasn't sure where to look. The light was harsh, very bright, finally awakened after what has felt like weeks of near darkness and rain.

The sounds of planes and helicopters flying at a low altitude was constantly heard, and it was almost the only thing to be heard in the countryside. There were no cars, and only the occassional couple that would walk by with their dogs.

I decided to closely follow a river that split the earth into two, one side belonged more to nature as the very fields it connected to were home to many sheep. As you can see above, I decided to fly my drone above them to capture this part of the countryside that I otherwise would not have been capable of witnessing. They moved almost like a hivemind, a single entity that knew precisely which direction to walk in and at the exact same speed.

At one point, they scattered across the field, most likely due to the sound of the drone coming in and growing louder above, I didn't intend to scare them, so I only managed to obtain this clip before turning the drone back to again let them be at peace.

Their home appeared to be a decayed, mostly white set of barns that were clearly built many years prior. The building had aged to the point where it no longer stood upright, instead holding a slight lean that didn't display much safety for anyone or anything that could be beneath its roof. Interestingly, a World War 2 pillbox was sitting in the very same field, left to decay. It must have been placed close to the river in the event that a hostile entity attempted to gain deep access to the English countryside through this narrow, very long river.

At this point my fingertips were growing more and more stiff. Bending my fingers became more of a challenge than a basic function of my hands. The cold air was making flying the drone a struggle, so I snapped one more picture and took a few short videos before packing it up to continue my walk.

The sunlight was so bright that my camera was incapable of picking up the blue of the sky, the sky entirely was blown out; the DJI Mini 2 doesn't have particularly great dynamic range, so it was expected. For this reason I mostly attempted to avoid having the sky in the frame too much. It simply wasn't something that could be tweaked in post production.

This walk is pretty well known to many in Essex, it's quite a frequent spot, but perhaps not so much on such early, cold mornings during winter. But, I believe that's what makes it much more enjoyable: the silence, the sparse people you often just see scattered across the horizon. Ultimately, I had ended up in near an area known as Fordham.

To sum up the beauty of this spot, I'll end this post with this short video I took before leaving. A slow panning short with the drone that reveals the trees and landscape that surround. Just a mere fraction of what this countryside spot has to offer. But the one spot that took my attention for more than half an hour.