For February 2013 we cross the Forest of Dean from Lydbrook to the banks of the Severn above Gatcombe. Gatcombe was a noted port in Tudor times; it's not so much a case of "Queen Elizabeth Slept Here" as "Everyone Who Was Anyone in 1590 Except Shakespeare Probably Slept Here". And Shakespeare may have managed to slip out to this neck of the woods at some point.

The reason for their trips was not the February sunsets, though they are quite splendid, but the rather nice river which is reflecting this one. The Severn is broad and deep enough (when the tide's in) for a fairly decent Tudor warship. Warships at the time were built of wood and Gatcombe is a sheltered creek adjacent to a Royal Forest grown in part to produce timber for ships.

February's short days have their points and one major one is that the sun gets up late enough for everyone to see it casting its light across the cloud formations. Come the evening, our local ball of burning gases sets sufficiently early to watch it disappear beneath the horizon (or, in this case, behind a tree) and then get home for tea.Admittedly the walk from Little Hagloe back to Blakeney had to be done in the dark, but that's just one of the things that has to be endured for the sake of a decent view of a sunset across the estuary of Britain's longest river.

Far to the south, Bristol and the Severn Bridges are lost in the pink-orange haze while the river flows off into forever.