Sunday afternoon in Castet

We sat one Sunday afternoon on the little hill that rises above the Plateau de Castet, in the afternoon sun of a perfect still blue November afternoon. Below the small green fields gradually whiten towards the northern edge of the hillside and the tree lines until at the edge of the trees it is pure white and frozen as it must have been all day where the sun doesn't reach. Above the green and white fields rises the dark forest. In full shadow the grey and white trunks standing out now among the bare trees, the occasional dark green of a pine, grey of rock. Above the forest the white snow and black rocks with the pure blue sky above that and floating in that perfect blue is a clear white half moon. A wet moon, standing on its side, so the water could flow out across the sky - more snow or rain coming soon. The sound of cow bells drifts up from the plateau below as the cows move trying vainly to keep ahead of the lengthening shadows and the cooling afternoon.

A late autumn landscape with a little colour left in the trees, the white frost, bare trees and long shadows have a distinctly wintry feel, the air is clear, still and sharp. The high landscape, the ridges and the peaks appear perfectly still in the distance, immovable and eternal against the blue.

The Plateau de Castet drops in the western sun into the Vallee d' Ossau, across the valley is the village of Bilhere catching the late sun and above the village the Plateau du Benou with a snow capped ridge above the plateau. Many of the trees have lost all their leaves and their shadows are skeletons marching across the fields, browns, greys and blacks, the colour in the landscape is provided by yellow left in the birches and blue smoke rising from a chimney. A very still quiet afternoon, time to reflect on the changing season, the coming winter.