It's the kind of morning when the water seems to hold more light than the sky above it; its brightness so intense that it hurts my eyes to look at it. It throws so much light that the trees on the shore are seen in stark silhouette.
Above, the sky is shrouded in a gauzy haze and ringed around the horizon with soft clouds, bright white but shadowed with dove grey.
It doesn't seem possible that such a sky can produce enough light to cause the brilliant reflection seen in the water below, but there it is: another of Nature's sweet contradictions.
There is an eagle circling out there, riding upward in spirals, riding on the thermals that follow the contour of the steep hillside that rises from the water's edge. He circles up and up and then, quite suddenly, drops again, so low it appears his wingtips might touch the water before he begins his ascent once again.
There's a gentle wind blowing, stirring the flags on the flagpoles and causing the tall foxgloves in the garden to gently sway.
Two fat robins are prospecting for worms on the lawn below and a fat quail, dapper in his blue grey suit, makes his presence known from a perch on the rock wall just above them.
And I am, once again, gazing out the window, transfixed by the beauty of it all. The world really is a magical place you know. So much to see if you but pause for long enough to look at it.
Have a happy day today and enjoy all the gifts this Friday brings your way. There are so many of them!
