Early morning...

...my front garden.

Now that we are into Autumn and literally approaching Winter, the sun has moved away from the East where it rises in the morning.

My back garden gets less and less sun because I am quite high up.

But my front garden where this bench (now dedicated to J and Meg, and J did ask me to put a bench in the front garden so he could sit on it when he was gone), gets more sun, and it now gets the very early morning sun. It is actually a very special time of day because there is a magic about it.

There are still massive oak trees around me from the old shipbuilding days, although most of this bit of ancient forest is gone for housing.

However I still have ancient protected woodlands and meadows, on the back of my property (which is where the hundreds of butterflies emerges from to my garden).

And, in my front garden I can see the woodlands on the side of me at the end of the road. These have been there since time immemorial, and there is a castle built in 12th-13th Century. I believe over the centuries, the stones were dismantled for building work in this area. I sort of feel because of this, the castle is still protecting a wide area.

Anyway, back to the early morning sun in autumn and winter. There is a particular point each day between dawn and just after the sun rises when a mist comes up from the forests around the Castle. It is truly magical, and even those scattered massive ancient oaks (away from the main forest), around me all appear to have that glow of the mist around each one. It is the one time of the day where they all have unity, and they are as one.

This whole mysterious magic lasts but a few minutes. Yet lasts for an eternity.

Every day, when I can, I will sit on that bench at this special time of day with a coffee and Popeye, the cat. Nothing, and no one, no cars, no living person disturbs me when I sit here at this special time. I am at peace...

It used to be me and Meg, my Hearing Dog who sat on that bench at this special time of day, but Popeye has taken Meg's place now.

This is the last time you will see it this colour. The bench needs preserving. And since J's favourite colour was green, and I saw the exact shade of preservative green paint of his favourite hat, so that was bought, and it will be applied soon....