A Fire Day

A safe journey home yesterday and the usual catching up today; dishes, washes, cooking.  Very cold here, minus two outside and a dank, grey day, old, stale air; 'experienced' in Ronald Blythe's phrase.  I have been reading his 'River Diary', a collection of rural thoughts rooted in history, the everyday life of the farm and the village and his work with the church.  He knows this part of the country well because of his connections with the church at Discoed.

I have been thinking about the flat Moss landscapes I saw over the weekend.  I loved living near those vast flat agricultural landscapes, those immense skies; but we began to realise that we wanted to live in the countryside and not near it.  I have also become fascinated by the marks that define the landscape, that create the pattern of fields, the hedges and gateways, the tractor ruts and field trees. I will chase this further on the Landscape Writings website, I think.  Cold here, a not-very-far-from-the-fire day, a typical between-Christmas-and-New Year day.