EARLY NOVEMBER SKIES.

At the risk of being repetitive ... as I write this, yes, it's raining again, loudly ... or so I thought until I looked outside the door. It's frozen rain ... hailstones and some quite large!

This morning listening to the weather forecast on Radio 4 before I had surfaced out of the warm comfort of duvet country, they mentioned snow on The Brecon Beacons. Now up here, we tend to get very similar weather. So that set the mood for the day, lots of warm layers, thick sea-boot socks, my last morning of getting the chooks let out and fed. After they and the rabbits had been attended to we drove up to the highest point ... there was some, but not much snow. Looking across towards England, a bright break in dark clouds.

Now you might think ... "What a scenic view." except that, just stand back a bit and ...

Yes ... a recently unloaded pile of fly tipped mess! Using the cover of the recent weather, someone had dumped a load of bits of cardboard and old window frames, right by the edge of the road and judging by the fresh tyre tracks near the scene it had probably been done just this morning. Now I may be wrong but this was probably a tradesman not your average D.I.Y type.

There were other tyre tracks too, another set of folk who like to abuse the mountain under the cover of drizzle and mist ...

Offroaders! They churn up all the mud and leave great scars across this lovely landscape.

This morning, these moors were the wettest I have ever known them, every step was squidgy, slushy or splashy. There were remnants of overnight snow but without the ground being frozen, it was melting easily and rivulets were running everywhere. Across the commons, the main off road tracks seemed like shining ribbons across the heath. I saw no grouse today and one single skylark fluttered above us with its call seeming lonely.

The dog was enjoying the pleasure of paddling in heather hedged pools, I was  frozen.

There was a bitter breeze and the skies were rather overcast and grey ... not a good day.

But then a shaft of sunlight started to spread and widen over the hillsides and valleys.

By this time my hands were so cold, we headed home for a restful day before heading back up the mountain to put the chickens and rabbits away for the last night of our care. As it approached that time of day, the skies were dramatically darkening and as we headed up the mountain road once again dark clouds were gathering in the skies above, but ... there was one very singular patch of brightness to be seen in the whole of the dome of sky.

Just to the right of this,  from the same standpoint, the clouds were rather different ...

and so we headed back to tend to seeing the chickens and rabbits fed and safely locked away for the rest of the night and just as we did so we were hit by the first of the hail.

All I can say is "Ouch!" and we're glad to be safely warm back inside!

I should apologise for these recently sky fixated posts on the blog but there is very little worth taking photographs of on the ground at the moment, except maybe  ...

like this ornamental hedgehog, we are hibernating for the rest of the night.