When the sun comes out…

When the sun comes out my spirits soar. Yesterday, it rained all day. Rained cats and dogs, and dog and I got soaked walking. It wasn’t that I didn’t have enough to occupy me indoors so much as that the dreary light sapped my resolve, and my husband and I sat around moaning about how cold it was for June, and how tired we felt.

This morning, the sun woke us shining through the bedroom door. I was up and out early with yesterday’s wet pooch – we walked along the lane, up the slate track, and round the field at the end. I stopped when I got back to the lane to wait for said dog to catch up – she’s twelve and getting slower – and was delighted to see a bank vole scuttle across the lane. It’s been a couple of years since I last saw one, before we moved house, in fact, so it was nice to see one locally. About twenty seconds later, I caught a movement and was astonished to see the tiniest baby vole attempting to cross the lane to follow its mother – I assume it was its mother. It was so young its little legs kept tying themselves in knots, so I stood in the middle of the lane until it was safely across. I stayed there for some time in case there were more babies following, but it seemed she only had the one. Seeing this gallant little creature so full of determination made my day.

Our afternoon walk took us up Plumstone mountain. Mountain may be a bit of an exaggeration, but the Welsh have a unique sense of humour. Be that as it may, there’s an almost 360 degree panorama from there that reaches from the Preseli Hills to the north and east, to Haverfordwest and the refineries at Milford Haven to the south, and west to Ramsey Island in Cardigan Bay.

There was a cold wind blowing, the air fresh and clean, and despite the wind, skylarks were singing overhead and dropping to their nests amongst the heather and gorse, and I’m sure I caught sight of a stonechat. Skylarks and stonechats are other much loved creatures I hadn’t seen since we moved, so I was even more delighted with my day.

The fact that my husband and I managed to walk up there at all was another cause for celebration. It’s a steep path up, and he’s not long out of hospital after surgery. Today has been a breath of normality in what has been a very stressful few weeks.

So thank you, sunshine, voles, Plumstone, stonechats, and skylarks for making my day perfect. Oh, and my husband and my dog, too – perfect, that is.

My beautiful perfect pooch.