A winter walk in the Forest of Dean #MySundayPhoto

Usually in the winter, I hibernate. I don’t like the cold at all. I used to suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder and winter made me quite depressed and I’d just stay indoors. Since Bunny started school in 2011, I’ve not been affected and I strongly believe that the reason is because the school run made me get outside in the fresh air and daylight. SAD is caused by not enough daylight or vitamin D (from sunlight) and staying indoors made my depression worse. So now, I try to make sure I get outside, even in winter.

Yesterday we decided we all needed some fresh air. Mike has been off work poorly and I’ve had a few days solidly working on my blog, rather than leaving the house. Cabin fever was starting to set in and make us all feel a bit grumpy. I suggested we all go for a walk, but somewhere different to usual.

We drove out into the Forest of Dean to Cannop Ponds. I’ve never actually been to the Forest of Dean before, despite living nearby. We were looking for somewhere that Mike has been to for walks in the past, but he couldn’t remember where it was. We ended up at Cannop Ponds, but it wasn’t the place he’d been looking for.

Cannop Ponds is a very small area with a few picnic tables and a bridge over the water, but it’s very pretty. We fed the ducks, who were part swimming, part walking as most of the pond was frozen solid. We had a good giggle at the ducks walking across the ice as they looked like they were ice skating. The combination of the icy ponds, our misty breath, the tall wintery trees and the thick blanket of fog surrounding us, made for a beautiful atmospheric scene around us. I only had my phone with me, not my DSLR but we still took some great photos. Most of these I am going to share over on my travel blog next week, as I re-launch my scenic photo linky known as #CheckOutThatView.

We only walked about 1km in the end, as we were short on time, but we certainly got adequately caked in mud in that time. Mike and I need to go out an buy some wellies before our next walk as Mr OCD wasn’t too pleased about getting mud on his trainers (but I enjoyed teasing him about it)!