Country diary: I keep coming back to this house on the hill

‘Mainly I come here because it’s atmospheric. By day the road-roar corrupts any serenity, but late at night, it lessens.’ Photograph: Simon Ingram

I walk up the lane in the dark. Inside the car, all the glows betrayed the sky, but now I’m out, I can see its light goes deep. Deeper with every step.

Soon I’m the only sound. I slow my walk and lighten my steps. I’m hoping for owls, which I’ve seen hunting here. What I hear is rodents, agitating the hedges to the left, and at my feet when I climb a stile, its surface shimmering with frost. Now in the field, I look right until the house appears.