Country diary: On this hazy morning, the distant hills are barely visible

Comins Coch, Ceredigion: With the sun still low in the sky, a red kite beats across the hillside in search of breakfastAhead of me at the far end of the path, just where it drops into the next valley, the wind has corralled a drift of dry leaves between the hedgerows. It fills the space behind the gate almost ankle deep, so that opening it sweeps a quadrant clear to mark my passage.The air is still and cold, the grass fringed with lines of frost, distant sounds seem unusually close at hand. Ivy weaves across the bank below the beech wood, bright green against the dead brash of the woodland floor, with early light reflecting from the glossy cuticles of the leaves. Continue reading...