Apart From The Trees

A cold clear night, a whole skyful of stars and the Milky Way very clear overhead.  Dark at 5pm and only just above freezing at 8pm.  

Headlights from Presteigne visible a mile and more down the valley, thanks to the hedges being trimmed.  Long tunnels of moving light.  Ghost trees.  

We have seen a lot of nuthatches recently, probably the family that were reared in the old apple trees in the summer.  A young one watched me unpack a box of books from the garage a few saturdays ago.  They come to the bird table next door and we watch them in the ivy on the beech tree.  A short, loping flight.  

And unexpectedly we went to the river Lugg at Presteigne after heavy rains.  Usually the river is swollen and the colour of angry, milky coffee.  But this time the river was clear and we could see large maple leaves turning slowly in the stream, racing under the bridge and away, a slow, gentle movement in the ferocious power of the water.