The dark days are upon us

The dark days are upon us, the nights are long and the days achingly short. The cold grip of winter makes the hardiest of us feel like hibernating within the warmth and safety of our homes. Grey days where the sky is a distant memory, it envelopes us in its dark, depressing fog……. But the light is there, if you care to seek it out.

The rare, bright, low light that glances the tops of the fields and hedges, picking out the fieldfares’ wings as they ‘Chak-Chak’ away from you. Strobing through the trees as you walk or drive through the countryside. Long shadows, hugging the ground and seeming to never end. Even when the path you tread seems lost in the shadows- look up, the light is there, touching the tips of the bare branches, highlighting the chimneys and reflecting it’s golden glow in the upper windows of houses.

When it’s impossible to get out during the day – a night time stroll around the village can be a time for wonder. My first walk out for a long while was greeted with the ‘Ke-wick, ke-wick’ of the Tawny Owl and excited families, giggling and chatting as they make their way around the Advent Window Trail. The joy that the Christmas Garden Displays are spreading is truly heart-warming … The light is there, if you care to seek it out.