Don't blink

Blipper Mima said she took a picture today just because she saw blue sky. Unwonted in the southern hemisphere in December, you might think, and perhaps more predictable that I would do the same thing. I even stopped the car to grab this brief moment of golden light. Prior to this today, we had seen deep floods where the Avon has broken its banks at Warwick, a mud-spattered farmyard in Oxfordshire, hundreds of small pine cones, dashed from the trees by the force of the rain, and precious little of the light we crave to keep our spirits afloat

I'm looking north across the Swere valley. The railway I described on the 26th tracked the river here, though you can see no evidence from this distance. The Swere valley is parallel to our own, and the tunnel I mentioned took the line under the sunlit hill on the near horizon to escape our valley into this one. In our village, it is simply called 'South Hill', and the 50 vertical metres climb to the top from the bridge over our stream is one of my stiffer cycling routes - a first-gear hill, even with an electric motor. It's easy to see why cuttings and tunnels were unavoidable. I hadn't realised until now that I'm crossing the tunnel just as I feel the relief of hitting the hilltop

The respite was brief - the rain returned before we made it home. But the promise is there - the light will return. Oxfordshire showed its smiling face for a moment