With very few exceptions, my days start the same way, all year round, regardless of the weather. I shuffle half comatose out of bed, make a coffee and take it out on to the balcony. Yesterday at this time it was daylight, but this morning it is dark. Apparently, I have woken at 5.30 again, despite the clocks going forward. It’s dark, but the birds are singing loudly and it’s beautiful out here, just me and the birds. No sign of human life anywhere. It’s one of my favourite moments in the day.
Normally, I spend this time checking emails, bookings that have come in overnight, responding to messages and mentally make a list of things I need to do that day. It’s a real luxury to be able to just sit, read or simply to take everything in around me. It’s peaceful and beautiful. Well, I say ‘peaceful’, every morning for the last couple of weeks I’m getting dive bombed and shouted at by grumpy starlings who are nesting in the roof beams above me. 😆
With the clocks going forward it means there will be an extra hour of direct sunshine in the afternoon. Or at least, it would have been, had there been any this afternoon. I’ve talked about the benefits of being surrounded by the mountains and it is a plus. The only downside is that in the winter, when the sun is lower in the sky, we lose direct sunlight very early. Yesterday it rose around 8.30 and was gone around 3.30pm. In the depths of Dec/Jan, we get only a couple of hours a day, literally. But it’s a small price to pay for all the benefits we get from the mountains and it’s a source of much excitement as the sunshine lasts a few minutes longer each day.
Not that we can be absolutely certain that there was no sunshine this afternoon. Having grabbed the perfect opportunity with the weather, Mark set light to the bonfire pile and we had a very satisfying couple of hours tending to the burning pile of wood and rubbish that he’d accumulated this week. After which, we had a bit of lunch and ‘just a few minutes sit down’… and woke up at nearly 6 o’clock. There might have been some extra sun this afternoon, but we didn’t see it. 🙄 😂 💤
Thank goodness the weather is due to be a bit rough the next few days, I think we’re both quite tired 😉
Stay safe everyone xx
