Another Country Diary #47

With buzzards.

23/11/25

There are sheets of rain falling shortly after breakfast. The light dims to almost dusk-like levels and rain pummels the roof tiles. It rained all through the daylight hours and into the night yesterday, but this morning the rain feels angrier. It must be a warm front working through, perhaps diagonally over us for it to be so prolonged. It is at least a break from the days of freezing weather.

At midday it is as though someone throws a switch. The rain stops, the clouds part, sunlight returns, and for about an hour the sky is almost cloudless. It doesn’t last. By the time we set out for a post-lunch walk the clouds are building a soft pillowy canopy of bruised greys and yellowish whites, interspersed with glimpses of blue. A buzzard flies slow and low across the lane we are walking down, descending toward a line of field oaks. There are co…