As forecast and commented in this blog, winter has finally arrived in South Wales (that’s Old South Wales, not the state in Australia where it’s now coming into summer).  Temperatures over the last two nights have dropped below zero.  Not very far below but enough not only to give a frost  in the garden but also to freeze water in buckets, plant saucers and anywhere else it has collected in the last few very wet weeks.

The colder weather has been accompanied by, and is indeed partly occasioned by, clearer skies replacing the recent all-pervading greyness.  Not that the skies have been completely cloudless and it is the remnant clouds which have added dramatic colour morning and evening.

The views from the balcony at the back of the house when I stagger down stairs in the morning have enticed me outside with the camera, shivering in socks and thin jogging bottoms and T-shirt.  At this time of year the southeast facing balcony looks straight towards the point at which the sun pops over the ridge on the far side of the valley.

At the other end of the short day the setting sun in the southwest is also visible from the balcony looking along the curving line of adjacent houses.  But more dramatic is the colouring effect it has on the clouds to the east, vivid gold counterpointing the blackness of thick cumulus.

It’s a privilege and a great pleasure to have such colour in the sky at the back of the house at both ends of the day.

The sun appearing over the ridge on the opposite side of the valley behind the Douglas Fir I planted 25 years ago

…. and lighting up deep purple foliage

…… detail

The setting sun to the west lights up the trailing edge of cumulus cloud

At the end of the afternoon, the remains of ice on autumn leaf