day of radiance and dark clouds

Yesterday, my wife and I took our annual pilgrimage to "the Boy's Pool", high in the Brecon Beacons. After a strenuous little climb from the car park, one can find a delightful little plunge pool in the high waters of the River Tawe. We plunge briefly into its dark, healing waters and call upon the Great Spirit to take good care of our son, lost 6 years ago this weekend.

The weather on the way up was amazing. The forecast had warned of heavy rain showers all day, but in the event it was actually quite balmy. Humid air was passing swiftly through the valleys, causing the bubbling cumulus clouds above us to arrange constantly changing shapes and shades of dark and light. These patters wheeled across the mountainsides in an exquisite beauty.

Just a mile before we reached our destination, a pure white rabbit ran out across the country road a few yards in front of us. It waited and watched us as we passed by, only scampering away after we had gone. We looked at each other as we spotted it, then said no more about it until an hour later, when having completed our little tribute to the River spirits, we drove back down the mountain road. And as we passed the place where we had seen the white rabbit, my wife said:
"That was him, bet you. It was just like him."
It was one of those perfect little moments.
The journey home continued to be graced by wonderful processions of light and shade passing over the steep hills and valleys of the Vale of Glamorgan. It's a pretty road whatever the weather, but on this day the light show formed by the passing clouds continued all the way home too, gracing it as never before.

But the cumulus thickened in the afternoon, huge storm clouds appeared and there were peals of thunder. But it remained delightfully warm throughout. A strange, and almost wondrous day.