Another Country Diary #45

With drifts of leaves

30/10

October is hardening towards darker colder days. Ceci and I walk to the top and back, the day already darkening. The sky has hardened towards something flinty—grey nodules of cloud like the pebbles on Cromer Beach. We stop by a field where a few sheep are kept by a smallholder, their tightly curled fleeces are the colour of winter clouds. The oaks are deepening their autumn tones. Everywhere today, shades of grey and brown. The air is sharp with leaf decay. Solitary crows pace the crops.

31/10

I drop my eldest at the train station to return to her Uni life. It will be another six weeks before we see her again. There should be a law that makes children stay close to home or something, to save all this grieving. Before she left we followed the family tradition of the chocolate pumpkin hunt. When they were small we’d tell them the witches had lef…