I have walked and taken photos in the woods at East Blean more times than I can remember and have pictures covering every season including winter but I’d never managed a visit there when there was very much snow on the ground mostly because we rarely get any significant snowfall.

I had been keeping my eye on the forecasts and it was clear that today was going to be a lovely sunny, but very cold day. I had planned on getting out with my camera and a trip to West Hythe where we know there is a Night Heron at the moment is what I had planned but when I saw the beautiful hoar frost first thing I had a walk along the river in Sandwich first. It turned out to be one of the best days for taking pictures I'd had for a long time.

During 2009 it’s our intention to do far more local walks and visit areas we’ve never been to before.  We realised there is so much of our county we probably don’t know at all.  So, looking for some ideas, I found an old AA “50 Walks in Kent” book we have and looked for some ideas.  One that seemed suitable was a walk around Barham, a small village in the Elham valley which dates from Saxon times.

It had been a while since I had visited Denge Wood; in fact I had never visited there during the winter months before. I tend only to visit this wood close to Canterbury during the spring and summer when butterflies and orchids are in season, but this area of woodland is really interesting as so many changes, hopefully for the better, are happening there.

We were actually on our way somewhere else for a walk on this day, but as we drove through Dover it was obvious that some of the hills had had a lovely dusting of snow on them. Not much, but it was still a chance to get snow on our walking boots. Our original plan was put on hold and I quickly looked on the map and worked out a walk we could do and how to direct Nigel, who was driving to the car, to the parking space on Cheriton Hill above Folkestone.

It is our intention this year to complete a series of walks following the course of the Royal Military Canal. Started in 1804 as a response to the increased risk of invasion by Napoleon’s army, the Royal Military Canal stretches 28 miles from Seabrook near Folkestone in Kent, crossing the Romney Marsh to end at Cliff End near Rye in East Sussex.

Living so close to Dover we often have a walk on the cliff-top path and I’ve lost count of the number of times we have walked there. But in all the times we have walked there we have never gone down the path that leads to a beach below the cliffs so that’s what I had planned to do. I was just waiting for a suitable day for it as the weather had been so gloomy recently and the flat light is never inspiring for photography.

The day started so dull and I knew the flat light would not be good for taking pictures but the forecast was for the weather to improve by mid afternoon so it might not be too bad. We chose to do the second of the walks taking in the length of the Royal Military Canal.

I set myself a bit of a challenge today. I’d not used my macro lens very much the last few months and I needed to brush up on just how the lens works best. I find if you don’t use things all the time it’s easy to forget how the lens has worked best for you in the past. As it’s that time of year when the first signs of the spring are beginning to show what better way to go find some willing subjects to photograph.

The weather forecast was completely wrong for today, it said it would be cloudy and getting increasingly windy with heavy showers so we were in more than two minds deciding where we would go. But for now the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day, so we decided to head down to Reculver. All the times we have visited Reculver we had never walked in the direction towards Minnis Bay, something we would put right today.