It’s winter again and unseasonably warm. How many more years must we say that? Yet, somehow, I’m still cold. I wish to hibernate like the rest of the natural world, my consciousness slipping soundlessly underground, cradled in the soft earth suspended between the roots of an old oak. Let me rest there for a while.

Situated a few miles off the coast of Pembrokeshire, Caldey Island is still home to a handful of Cistercian monks.