Glowing

This bit of damp river-bank struck me this afternoon simply because of its colours. The sky was uniformly grey, it was beginning to rain. There was no sun shining - and even if it had been, it would have been from the sky facing the camera - but this little patch of moss, dead leaves and grass was as vivid as if it had been stage-lit. And just look at the cushions of moss all the way up the trunk and branches of that big bare tree on the right ...

It had been one of these afternoons when we'd dragged ourselves out of sleepy armchairs (I love a transferred epithet) to go for a walk. I've often wondered if we're simply mad to feel the need to do such things. But the air was wonderful, the countryside as lovely as it ever is. And we met a former pupil who is now almost at retirement age and stood in the quiet road for ages, talking in the rain as though we were in a city street. 

Not such a bad afternoon after all.