An easterly gale that rattled the house and sent plant pots tumbling through the dusk finally blew itself out around dawn. In its wake, it left an uncannily still and clear morning in Comins Coch, Ceredigion.
The Aftermath in the Lane
Venturing out, the evidence of the night's fury was clear along the deeply eroded, ancient trackway. A fresh scattering of fallen branches marked the storm's passage. The quiet was broken only by the harsh, disputing calls of a pair of jays from a fragment of woodland beside a stream.
Where sunlight had yet to reach, a crisp frost coated the grass and the carpet of fallen leaves. In deeper shade, several days' worth of accumulation glistened with a perfect, crystalline symmetry. Despite the icy veneer, the soil beneath remained unfrozen – a telling sign of the unusually warm weather that had preceded this cold snap.
Life Among the Frost
A noisy gathering of roughly twenty jackdaws and rooks swirled from a line of trees down to the pasture, ambling in search of food. They scattered at a human approach but regrouped with a curiously fluid motion once the coast was clear.
The walk led to an old quarry, its edges fringed by trees casting skeletal branches against a still, blue sky. Stunted oak and ash trees have colonised this former source of roadstone. Sheltered from the prevailing westerly winds by a sheer rock face, they have formed a new, almost hidden canopy, their boughs heavily laden with lichen.
From this vantage point, the view east to the Cambrian mountains was partly obscured. Banks of cloud and haze struck a contrast with the landscape, somewhat deadening its usual grandeur.
A Sign of the Turning Year
As the afternoon wore on, the wind began to rise again, and the cold became too biting to linger. Taking a final glance eastward, the observer turned back towards the shelter of the lane.
A movement in the trees above caused a pause. There, lit by the last of the afternoon sun, perched a male blackbird. Svelte and in excellent condition, its beak and eye-rings were a brilliant orange. It sat briefly among the newly emerging catkins, a vibrant hint of life and colour against the winter backdrop. This fleeting moment served as a gentle reminder: the year is turning, and with luck, the worst of winter will soon be behind us.
