It's late November already. It feels to me like the year has rushed by but the natural world is taking it all in it's stride. Well for the most part. It is unseasonably mild some mornings and while I walk to the stables in a coat and gloves I'm often too warm before I arrive. But it's dark, so dark in the mornings and going out into the blackness without a coat would seem reckless somehow.
This morning I took the torch but I knew I wouldn't really need it. By the time I had fed puss and strewn a scoop of nuts across the yard for the ponies to pick at the dense blackness was beginning to lift just a little. But this is November still and the skies have stayed a steel grey with just the occasional glimpse of blue and white on the clouds, all day long. It's windy too and the clouds scurry ahead of the wind, brushed by the increasingly bare tree boughs.
I am co-inciding with the rooks awakening now and usually half way through the stable routine of filling haynets and waterbuckets, clearing the manure from the field and sweeping, there will be a rush of cawing noise as they erupt from the rookery up the hill and flood down over the field; so many huge bits of black paper twirling and twisting in the sky. They have an aim. They are always heading east across the village but they make their way in huge swirls, dipping and rising, chafing at each other as they go.
The hens are still asleep - their solar powered door not yet receiving enough light to wind up and let them out for the day. It can be so dark both ends of the day now that I don't see the hens at all so this morning I opened the large door briefly to check they were still there - still ok - no-one had 'dropped off the perch' so to speak. All were well. A little huffy at being disturbed though. An amount of twitching and turning round on the perches and fluffing of feathers left me in no doubt that they were Asleep, if you don't mind.
Tonight when I go back all will be in bed again. Toby will be the first into the stable to check out whether I have put the hay down yet and should he throw all the hay out of the box just to see if I have put the pony nuts at the bottom today instead of the top. I never do put the pony nuts at the bottom but you never know and Toby would hate to think he had missed the opportunity of a pony nut if there was one to be had.
And then at the weekend, when work has stopped calling me so early, I will go down in proper daylight and be surprised. What's happened? Why does the field look different? Has someone cut down some trees? Oh, no, it's just light - daylight - full daylight and my little world will briefly seem a different place.
