Lately, the weather has been wind, rain, storm, sun, repeat. From my desk, in the angle between two windows, I see the changing sky and how the wind and rain set the air in motion. Each evening, the wind drops, the sun comes out and I can hear the birds rather than the wind sighing. Straight ahead, I look west.
and over my left shoulder, I look out of the south-facing window.
and if I go to the south window and look right, this is what I see.
The sky and the trees are in constant movement, but I love the peace that falls at the end of the day.
calm as a still lake
at dusk when swans roost and
only nightingales
make the air tremble with
their ceaseless song
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Which always reminds me of the movie.
Haven’t seen it. I read all the Bloomsbury crowd when I was at school and decided enough was enough.
I thought of the movie, too, though all I really remember is Maggie Smith and Helena Bonham Carter. 🙂
Wasn’t Helena Bonham Carter in Planet of the Apes?
I don’t know.
Think that’s where I heard the name. I’ve only ever seen her in that so I’ve no idea what she looks like really. Or, at least I assume she was wearing a lot of makeup…
I think A Room with a View was one of the first things she was in–and some other movies and shows like that. But she’s been in so many things.
You’re the movie buff. For me, she’s a ‘good’ ape.
It’s a good one.
Yay, you posted them! I love that meadow–I imagine it can be hypnotic to watch the stalks swaying.
It’s funny, but I’ve never thought of swans roosting. I guess I’ve only seen them in or about water. 🙂
I think maybe they sleep on the water sometimes. Not sure.
I often think something has dashed in front of the window and it’s just the wind catching a grass stalk. Some of it’s over six feet high now.
Wow!
Scary to walk through parts of it;
I can imagine Watch out for the monsters–especially at night!
As husband says, we’re lucky the house stays so cool in summer we don’t absolutely have to sleep with the windows open…
That is fortunate. I read the prediction is that we’ll have a hot, steamy summer, even though it’s delightful today. I’m happy we have a/c.
Still waiting for this famous burst of heat…
It’s a bit cool for this time of year here, but in a few days it will be steamy and 90, so I’m enjoying it. 🙂
I’ll believe it when I see it.
Lovely image in the mind!
It beats concrete walls and screaming neighbours 🙂
What a beautiful place you live in. Restful and calm.
It’s very peaceful but the elements and the ‘outside’ are very close. A bit unnerving sometimes.
I read the book. What’s the heavy machinery at the right in the last photo?
Ha ha! It’s the mechanism that closes the shutters on the inside. I looked it up and the English calls is a trammel. It’s like a cross between a door knocker and a latch.
Fantastic! Modern equivalent of the drawbridge then!
Hardly modern. They haven’t changed the design for hundreds of years
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espagnolette
The one in the photo is a new one. Ours are ancient and fancier 🙂
… and working?
Yup. I haven’t worked out how, but when you slot the two pieces together in a particular way (or randomly jiggling them in my case), it locks so you can’t flip it open from the outside.
Can’t improve on an invention so well made.
The modern ones have kept the function and lost the style.
One does appreciate the style though.
I do. I appreciate both pure functionality and elaborate design. It’s the naff in-between stuff that’s so tragic, like pvc doors with neo-georgian fanlights…
Oh, I see now. At first it looked as if it was some machinery outside the house. I thought it operated a well at first. It’s just a handle on a window.
That one’s on the shutter so we can lock it from the inside, or leave it half open on the catch.
The pictures are really reassuring. I didn’t even think you lived so rural. 😉 Michael
Oh, it’s rural. 100% 🙂
You can feel the movement in those photos. And how the light remakes all the forms. (K)
It’s never still. When the sun catches it it’s like a slow fire catching and in the rain it’s like a rising tide.
Lovely! Your views are beautiful. I’d never want to leave.
The ‘outside’ is lovely, I agree. No sound but birds, crickets and frogs. If only it was warmer indoors in winter it would be perfect 🙂
I have to have “warm” or I get mean and cranky.
Warm is essential for me. I get sick otherwise.