poliphilo: (bah)
poliphilo ([personal profile] poliphilo) wrote2014-09-04 09:46 am

Indian Summer

Ailz was throwing out papers and Matthew was "putting the garden to bed"- by which he meant pruning shrubs and bushes. Between them they generated the materials for the bonfire I kept going all day.

The sun was shining.  The afternoon light was blue and powdery.  The big, billowy clouds were only a shade brighter than the stretches of empty sky.  I sat on the felled tree in the corner of the bottom field and searched the distant landscape for the tower of Hadlow Castle. It wasn't there- because sometimes it isn't.

Then all at once I saw it- shining in a sunbeam- about half a mile to the left of where I'd reckoned it ought to be. 

[identity profile] puddleshark.livejournal.com 2014-09-04 10:17 am (UTC)(link)
Lovely. I like the idea of a tower that sometimes isn't there, and sometimes is where it ought not to be...

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2014-09-04 10:43 am (UTC)(link)
It's a fairy tower.

[identity profile] lblanchard.livejournal.com 2014-09-04 02:11 pm (UTC)(link)
I googled Hadlow Tower to see what it looks like. Very lovely. What a wonderful thing to see floating in the distance beyond one's fields.

[identity profile] pondhopper.livejournal.com 2014-09-04 02:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Heh. Great minds. I googled also and it's quite the sight!

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2014-09-04 05:24 pm (UTC)(link)
For many years it's been a sad wreck. They took the lantern down for fear it would fall on someone's head. Now it's been fully restored and people are living in it.
sovay: (Claude Rains)

[personal profile] sovay 2014-09-04 09:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Then all at once I saw it- shining in a sunbeam- about half a mile to the left of where I'd reckoned it ought to be.

That's lovely.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2014-09-04 09:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks.