Up on the top field at roughly the same time as yesterday and the contrast was almost unbelievable: clear and calm, so mild there were even little groups of hovering bugs taking the air....and normal service had definitely been resumed for the sheep.
Braved Storm Gerrit at lunchtime today......waterproofs over two layers of trousers and sweaters, woolly hat, hood tied over it, proper bad weather waterproof mittens, wellies. Up to circle the top field, sloshing and yomping through mud and floods, battered on one side as we headed over the top, buffeted along from the back as we went around the bottom of the field, the wind roaring through the two mature trees that sit there, battered on the other side as we turned back. Then straight into it on the bottom field, the wind spitting hail and sleet at us until we gained the relative shelter of the trees around the house. And all the while the dogs running round like they always do, apparently completely unconcerned by the apocalyptic conditions, sniffing at everything, burrowing into the grass looking for a tasty little furry creature. They are nothing if not phlegmatic.
I saw what looked initially like a little brown mouse running ahead of me along the path but was actually a wren, a low-flying wren, obviously aware that trying to fly too high would end in disaster.Apart from that it was the sheep, huddled together in a neighbouring field, standing stock still with their backs to the prevailing wind. It has to be pretty bad for the sheep to stop eating.
And could it have been more different yesterday? Hardly. We`d had snow on the evening of Christmas Day - yay, a white Christmas! - and Boxing Day dawned white and icy, but completely still. Dog number one and I set off about two o`clock to do a seven mile road circuit (walking in the woods on the snow would have been too much like had work) stepping out briskly to keep warm, gulping big lungfuls of the frosty air, vanquishing any lingering lethargy resulting from a Christmas Day spent eating (though not over-eating of course 😉) and binge-watching Dr. Who.
One car, one tractor but essentially no-one else about. The sun was going down behind the hills as, at roughly the half way point, we headed towards the local wind farm.
"Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone". Couldn`t have put it better this morning (thank you Ms Rossetti) even though it`s not yet midwinter, nor has today been bleak. Quite the reverse. It has been gloriously bright and sunny. No moaning frosty wind either though by lunchtime a chippy little breeze had sprung up. It nipped and snapped at noses and ears as we set off up the road encouraging us to step up the pace.
Once in the woods the woolly hat could come off and the only sound was the very satisfying crunch across the frozen snow, just softened enough not to be treacherously slippy but cold enough to avoid the shock of it tumbling down the back of your neck when brushing past a tree.
The light was the thing today though - beautiful, magical; best to simply stand and stare every now and again.
