A Rain Day

It has rained all day. We were woken by rain on the roof in the night and the skies were grey and clouded all day. The hills here are crowned with pines and the misty rain makes them look like Alpine foothills, as if when the clouds lift great mountains will be revealed. I like the variability of a landscape like that, its sense of potential; Alpine mountain, Welsh hills, English fields.

It is my son's birthday and we have been doing gentle party things; cake, candles, presents. When he was born it was bitterly cold for weeks and I remember snow in the ditches as I drove to the hospital, frosty skies and hard bright stars. He was born in the early evening and I also remember pulling the curtains aside in the delivery room at dawn of that day and thinking 'Today I will become a father.' An astonishing thought, which fixed the view of grey-golden clouds in my mind's eye. And he was born on a rare double moon, which I hope is a good omen. I nearly called this post 'fatherland', suggesting the new place I live, my new perspective since becoming a parent; but it seemed too flippant. Instead I will raise a glass to his future, and simply wish him all my love and all best wishes.