First light on Monday morning
I peered out of the barn door with my beady eye at the first light. Almost an hour passed before the sun appeared as a huge flaming orange ball. It was the colour of a yolk that the girls could only dream of creating. The contrast between the Oak and the Ash this autumn is quite amazing. The Ash is totally bare, the Oak is fully clothed and all the other trees are somewhere inbetween.
The Oak and the Ash
We had mused earlier in the year about which would come into leaf first and why this might be. And we remembered that the Oak hung on to her brown leaves through all the snow and frosts of last winter. What does it all mean? What is this winter going to bring? It is very dry and we have had hardly a drop of rain for a month. And the Holly is full of berries. Will we have a cold winter - or a wet one? Or no winter at all?
The Holly and the Berries
And no one knows. That is the most intriguing part of all. We can build as many modern technological instruments of brilliance as we like, but no one seems to be able to predict our weather more than a few days in advance. Mum taps her trusty barometer every time she passes it and we study the sky as it changes colours. But as for the weeks ahead we will just wait, and watch, and wonder. Gordon xxx