Observations

Heavy squalls of rain blowing down the valley, obscuring the far side, lowering the sky; a heavy thick rain-mist hanging over the hills.  The firs climb up into a daytime Alpine gloom.  When the squalls pass the landscape has a glistening, refreshed quality, the greens and browns shiny and bright.  

An armful of beech twigs blown from the tree onto the grass and brought in for kindling; dripping stems, dark blood reds and blacks, curled like claws, drying slowly and paling on the woodburner.  The immediacy of garden uses.