Project 365 day 315: the sky I wanted yesterday

This morning was grey and dreary again, so I thought I should use the limited light available and took a few quick photos of the inside of P's battered old straw hat, which shades his eyes when gardening, for the Abstract Thursday close-up challenge. Then, while eating lunch, I caught a wonderful golden glow among the yellowing leaves outside the window, and a little later, a sky full of billowing clouds I would love to have photographed yesterday. This is the photo I would like to have shared for the Wide Wednesday sky challenge, taken on my balcony. The autumn colours on the side of the valley are lovely, quite subtle but glowing yellow and orange when the sun catches them, and the fields are already quite green again as the winter wheat emerges. 

After my balcony photo shoot, J and I had a video appointment with two of the lovely regional communication aid team, who are trying to resolve niggling issues with the switch she uses to access her computers. This was useful and friendly, and was followed by an hour's video chat on Facebook messenger with a longstanding friend and fellow communication aid user who lives in the north west. She has chatted online with various members of her AAC peer group throughout the pandemic; in the past, they only met a couple of times a year, so this is a very positive result of the long months spent at home. 

P has made a wood fire this evening, which has been cosy and cheerful. It's been so mild for the past few days that we have barely needed the heating on - good for the planet and soaring energy costs, but it's been very difficult to dry the laundry, which I keep hanging outside, then bringing in damper than when it went out and draping over unheated radiators. I don't remember ever having such a mild spell in November, another worrying manifestation of global temperature rise.