Oriel Cottage

I went for a rather bleak and chilly late morning walk round the village in search of abstract inspiration. I found a few things - cracks in a road, details of drain covers, spots on walls - but none of them could compete with the glorious tree loaded with bright red berries in the small front garden of Oriel Cottage. It's a pretty cottage, with the window which gives it its name just visible between the branches, but today I particularly noticed the contrasts of the green paint and clipped topiary, red berries and russet leaves clinging to the beech hedge, all bright and clear against the white paint. 

It had been a rather frustrating morning. Computer issues - insufficient bandwidth causing problems loading web pages (especially my email) and playing video had upset the calm and positivity which usually follows my online yoga class, and the failure of the internal microphone means no-one (including the yoga teacher) can hear me on Zoom. P has now ordered a USB microphone, which I hope will resolve things as I have several video meetings scheduled in the next couple of weeks. I hoped a walk would improve my mood, and just being outside and moving probably did me some good, but the bitterly cold wind and heavy cloud were not conducive to lifting the spirits. 

The nicest part of the day was the evening movie I shared with J. We watched a Japanese anime on Channel 4, Weathering With You, which is somewhat in the Studio Ghibli style, a magical story based on a folk tale about a girl who can change the weather, but it's set in Tokyo and depicts very crowded and busy urban environments as well as some wonderful skies. The animation is beautifully drawn, and the story about a time when it never stops raining and the world is full of puddles and umbrellas, seems very apt just now. We both enjoyed it, and J is now looking out for a bargain DVD copy on ebay.