The pool

We all knew it couldn't last - didn't we? Yesterday's blue sky was replaced today by the familiar lowering cloud, and by the time we got out this afternoon it was raining heavily. We headed for the Bishop's Glen, the closest country walk to where we live, leaving the car behind. It's a place we've walked all over since we came to live in this house, some 42 years ago, and every inch is familiar, but this pool has, I realised, changed over the years.

When I pushed my firstborn in his buggy up here to look for brambles, the water under the trees here was a dark and sinister green. It was overshadowed by tall forestry commission trees, cut down several years ago, and looked very uninviting. Today it struck me that rather than a stagnant pond it has taken on the characteristics of a tiny lochan, and looks much the better.

That was all, apart from a tea-coloured burn, that caught my eye today - it's hard to spot photography moments from under a hood!