On my return.....tree skeletons.

This is where I have been....in the company of sisters, sun, sand and sea. The nourishing healing blessing of the Algarve.

The autumn garden before I left...the rainbow is a bonus. 

The plane tree in the field and the European Ash still clothed in autumn glory...

and my neighbour's oak tree.. burnished gold.

And on my return this is what I find....tree skeletons ....

and the little stream much fuller, rushing and gushing along ...... I can hear the sound of the waterfall at my boundary fence when I open the back door....reminding me of the constant shush of the waves which have been my background music for 3 weeks....

and the stately sliver birches nearly naked now. My view is completely changed by the loss of the leaves....my privacy gone.

But the wildlife in the garden is a constant pleasure.... all these visitors today...

....I was so happy to spot these 2 robins ...think they might have been fighting...or mating

one a bit moth eaten....

the other sleek and smooth...maybe male and female.

 Today I mostly  stayed at my desk...catching up with  accumulated paperwork....my tax return, paying bills, emails and phone calls and making Christmas arrangements, finding someone to repair the boiler which has sprung a leak, finding someone to fix the TV/aerial which has gone on the blink....finding someone to put up blinds in the bathroom...for warmth and privacy.

Sunrise this morning from my bedroom window....the stars were wonderful in the night...bright crystals speckling the heavens...I watched them for ages in the early hours when sleep eluded me.

And then the gift of a rose and gold washed sky....

a tiny sliver of a crescent moon.....

the morning star and a plane diving between them....

all this winter beauty around me ....making it easier to leave the warmth and blue light of the Algarve behind me. But still hard to adjust to the loss of my two sisters' constant company....feeling like the  skeleton plane tree.