......well, give it a few weeks more until autumn weather is really here. We are now sliding into our Indian summer. Blue skies, the leaves turning, the smell of damp earth and rained-on dry summer grass. The wild mint (menta poleo) is easily spotted in the fields and woods, with its spikes of green - grey leaves and purple flowers glowing out of the yellow sun-dried grass. The tuber-roses are in bloom, and we have armfuls of them scenting the staircase and hall.
Last night, waking at 4 am to a completely silent world, I went out onto the terrace. The feeling of floating in silence was due to a complete lack of wind. Stars spattered the heavens from horizon to horizon, the milky way bleaching its way from West to East, and Orion and Taurus over my shoulder. Then I heard it, what had presumably woken me; the roaring of a stag from the valley, then further pained groans from surrounding hills, and yet further away faint calls muted by the trees and folding landscape. A single bell from the church tower of Fuenteheridos announced the half hour, and it was time to return to bed.
Last night, waking at 4 am to a completely silent world, I went out onto the terrace. The feeling of floating in silence was due to a complete lack of wind. Stars spattered the heavens from horizon to horizon, the milky way bleaching its way from West to East, and Orion and Taurus over my shoulder. Then I heard it, what had presumably woken me; the roaring of a stag from the valley, then further pained groans from surrounding hills, and yet further away faint calls muted by the trees and folding landscape. A single bell from the church tower of Fuenteheridos announced the half hour, and it was time to return to bed.