Mist wraps the valley in a cold, grey shroud that eases around the barren trees and chills everything it touches. On the hard cuticle of a holly leaf, pinpoint lenses of water form – coalescing into large drops that roll to the leaf tip and drop, before the cycle repeats. In the hedgerow, webs hang low, like miniature hammocks, weighed down by the droplets that outline every node in the network of threads.
At the old iron gate that leads on to the lane, the fallen leaves of autumn, now dank, heavy and mouldering, have been swept into a deep wedge by the repeated movement. I struggle to push it further back and ease my passage. After the recent massive storm I am taking this route to check for fallen trees, and quickly come across piles of roughly sawn branches lying where they were dragged aside to clear the route down to the farm.
The steep beech wood has lost several large trees from the exposed upper edge, and I round the corner at the far end with some trepidation. I’m concerned about the fate of the ancient oak that stands splendidly at the top of the sheep pasture. It’s an impressive specimen, whose age must be well into the hundreds of years, and already carries many scars from its previous engagements with winter storms. The outer branches are starting to look frayed, but happily it has survived this latest challenge with only minor losses.
Eventually, the mist eases slightly and I head down towards the coast a couple of miles further on. As the dull afternoon blurs into a flat twilight, it is clear that sunset will be a technical event rather than a spectacle. I stand alone above the beach and take in the sweep of the bay, then hear the focused wingbeats of a large bird landing nearby. Looking around, I expect to see one of our notorious local gulls, famed for their intrusive theft of chips. Instead, I find myself staring at a young carrion crow, which regards me quizzically with its head on one side. I’m trying hard not to regard this encounter as an omen.
• Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian’s Country Diary, 2018-2024 is published by Guardian Faber; order at guardianbookshop.com and get a 15% discount
