Sometimes you just have to stop.....

At 7.25 this evening George said he had to go off and ring the bells.  Because it was getting dark, I followed him out a few minutes later to shut the chicken and geese in.  To my left an almost-full moon was rising, and to my right the sun was setting.  Ahead of me the green fields stretched down to the village.  And then the bells started ringing - half muffled in remembrance of an East Garston villager who died fighting in the First World War.  When I got up to the house Jonathan was sitting on the bench outside of the workshop listening and I sat with him.  An owl was hooting, a bat was flying around us, and the sound of the bells across the valley was beautiful.  It really was a moment to stop, listen and think.

As it got colder we came back into the kitchen which was full of the scent of the sweet peas I'd picked earlier - they've finally, just before the first frost will come, decided to bloom as if it was midsummer

Sometimes I'm so busy being busy, I forget how lucky we are....