Song for a dead swan

Painscastle, Powys Over the past few years, to my delight, a pair of swans had made this sky-reflecting pool their home

We all have our touchstone places. One of mine is the Monk's Pond on the Begwns - a little group of bracken hills north of the river Wye as it heads eastwards out of Wales. For more than half a century I've made regular pilgrimages to this pool, the southern Welsh uplands wrapped round it like a protective barrier. The view takes in the Black Mountains to the south, the Brecon Beacons in the west, and those smooth, heathery highlands of Radnorshire to the north.

There's a stand of drowned Scots pine at the pool's western end. Their roots were submerged when it was enlarged for a local farm's water supply. The pines are sibilant with goldcrests. Buzzards that range this wide country perch here and watch for prey.