Melancholia?

As I was making this video, the quality of the light as well as the disease of the sycamores instilled a certain melancholia.

Before that, who knew cygnets were so very mottled??

I heard a muntjac bark when I was leaving, and saw a pair of calling buzzards circling over the tree where they nested last year or the year before. That was about it for wildlife. Oh, and the coot and woodpeckers.

The trees, though. They really are struggling.

These are sycamores. The beeches are only suffering from wounds to their bark at the base, probably caused by deer browsing. The bark can be beautiful.

I sat with Kairos who told me that there is no "waiting" for trees. Nor, really, a "just being": to be alive is to be doing. When they are dormant, it's like not-being. It was cold. I didn't stay long. But, as ever, I found the tree to be enchanting, even the branches that have died.

And, I saw, the signs of winter's ending.