....surrender to the cave.

This morning I wake to rising mist over the valley and a hard hoar frost

on the ground. Even the water in the bird baths 

is glassy frozen.

Unusual to see a coal tit

at the bird feeder...and

even more unusual - a land surveyor in the garden. Actually three of them have been here all day measuring the house and the buildings and land around the house.

They will make drawings and elevations of all they have surveyed and give them to the architect who will use them to make the first sketches.

And so it will begin.....this transformation....from old house to new home.

The light on the trees in my neighbours' gardens is shining bright this evening ...

the sheep under the spreading plane tree, beginning to lose its leaves, don't seem to notice...

but both the silver birch trees have turned to bronze gold in the last few days. Out of the sun it has been icy cold and when I came home this evening and park the car I noticed that all the dahlias and nasturtiums have been stung by the frost...their leaves blackened and curling at the edges. 

The beginning of the garden's transformation.... autumn into bare earth winter.

While the men are here today with their measuring equipment, in and out of the house, I find it hard to settle to anything so I make a big pot of pale green leek and potato soup... and a stew using up the last of the green beans and garden tomatoes  -  the last time I'll cook that dish this year ...and I roast hard chunks of beetroot and carrots for supper.....

to comfort myself in the newly dark afternoons since the clocks changed. 

Already I can feel my winter hibernation coat calling me to surrender to the cave.