A big sky - still staying wild

Growing up in Africa has had a definite stamp on me. I am sure I see and feel differently to those who grew up in the UK.  The thing that I miss the most (apart from the warmth, the space, the far distant horizons) is the feeling of being beneath a big sky.

Our lives here in the village means that when I look out of the window all I can see is a jumble of cottage rooves or trees with just a small precious glimpse of sky. Our garden is surrounded by neighbouring trees. Now don't get me wrong - trees are incredible beings and essential and I would wish them no harm (except may be harbouring dark thoughts about leylandii cypress .....) but they are such large creatures and all they have to do is spread their arms and they scoop up the sky.

So - when I volunteer up at the walled garden, I make sure get my fill of blue. I eat the sky with my eyes, staring at the most perfect shades of cerulean. Deep eye watering indigo on stormy days, cobalt in summer punctuated with screaming swallows or cawing ravens. The cool silver grey of an evening and the light translucent china blue of an early morning. I love the endlessness and beauty of it all.

I love the curtains of rain as they drift across the distant hills, hiding the view behind a shower.  Huge rolls of mist that tumble off the tarn and quietly flow across the fields in autumn are something to see. Most days do have some form of cloud, ranging from wispy dreamy bits of nothing to huge tempestuous and thunderous beasts.

I have been privileged enough to see a female  kestrel bomb down 'out of the blue' and take a wood pigeon at an explosive speed then toss the unfortunate feathered lunch across to her large youngster who then caught it and dashed to the ground to eat.

I have been surrounded by swallows and barn swifts, who swoop low into the walled garden and barely by a whisker skim past my head before returning at speed back up into the endless blue.

I mean - what a view from my 'office window' !!

#staywild