Winter Day, January 07, 2007

Today, a brief winter day, we were together in my southern window, two small dark clouds in a grey sky but then the window filled with colour, a cloud all bright in orange and red as the sun rose and all day the sky was full of colour.

Outside in the quiet I talked to you as I moved rocks in a wheelbarrow, placing them around a favourite Cherry tree, ‘Taihaku’, to stop it falling in the rain and gales that sweep through the trees in winter. I was telling you about the cherry season in Japan and the admiration they had for their trees, but also I was seeing again those blossoms, such a delicate delight bursting from the bare brown wood.

Then I dug up all the brambles around my fruit bushes and strawberries and you were still with me.

Next I took a basket and axe to gather dead wood for the evening fire and picked some vegetables and wild toadstools. (Flammulina velutipes)

And as the sky gave a quiet, final, glorious glow I returned home to light my stove.