The world quiet, blanketed in mist for the 50 minute walk to the office. Alongside the water, I was accompanied by Gods, Legends, Hero’s, Nursery characters, Monuments and Dreams. Trees bare sentinels, branches etched charcoal through the whiteness. White, redefined by the stark beauty of a swan. Incredibly, with winter still holding tightly, a bank of yellow blossoms.

Excellent hot smoked salmon and a 2009 Chateau La Prade, on special that demanded to be sampled, for our dinner looking out at the impossibly blue twilight skies.