Summer is lovely here. Winter is better. The coast empties, the light turns silver and the house becomes the warmest place for miles. This is how we would spend a winter Saturday, if we were lucky enough to be guests.
08:30 — Breakfast in bed
A tray at the door: coffee, sourdough, eggs from up the lane. The curtains stay open so you can watch the weather come in across the water.
10:30 — The frost walk
Out across the white meadow and down the cliff steps to the beach. Walk east with the wind at your back and turn round when your cheeks tell you to.
13:00 — Lunch by the fire
Soup, bread and cheese from the pantry, eaten on the rug in the drawing room. Nobody else will be there. Nobody ever is at one o'clock in January.
16:00 — A bath with a view
The light goes early in winter, and the best place to watch it go is from the copper bath in The Lookout, with a book you will not read.
The house becomes the warmest place for miles.
19:30 — Supper, then stars
A candlelit table for two and something from the boats. Afterwards, borrow the blankets from the hall and walk out into the walled garden. On clear nights, far from any town lights, the sky is full.
