The rain, when it finally arrived, began with a mist of light droplets that scarcely reached the ground before evaporating in the dull heat. As the evening darkened, the temperature dropped sharply and heavy showers delivered substantial rainfall for the first time in many weeks. The air was almost completely still, the only sound the insistent hissing impact of rain on leaves.
By morning, the ground was all but dry once more – but when I took the narrow path between the fields of old meadow, the tall grasses at the base of the hedge, heavy with seed, were lodged and flattened by the overnight rain. Across the valley the field of bare soil, where the sloping pasture has been ploughed and reseeded, stood out darkly against the adjacent mown grassland.
At the foot of the beech wood, the lane was even less frequented than usual. The foliage here has darkened over the last week, the dappled shade much deeper than before. Bluebell and wood anemone flowers have gone, leaving a dark tangle of encroaching stems as ivy and fern weave across the still-dry banks. The invasive, almost indestructible, brambles have already set fruit – hard, green indicators of the wild harvest to come.
Beyond the interlocked canopy of trees, the view of the Rheidol valley widened out. Leaning for a moment on a field gate, I looked over a landscape rich with hedgerows and mature trees. Sheep grazed and dozed on the fringes of the pale, rush-patched meadow, a red kite circling silently overhead while bees explored the pale dog rose flowers in the top of the hedge.
Evening brought the return of the rain, with lenses of isolated showers moving across the valley before merging into a homogeneous blur of grey that ate away at the view. The sun was low on the horizon when it cleared, cutting below the level of the cloud and lighting up the hills with clarity and contrast. As the shadows grew, the broad stub of a starkly vivid rainbow appeared briefly in the centre of the scene before fading ahead of the approaching dusk. With the light draining away, a single blackbird sang from the top of the beech tree at the end of the lane.
