winter days
we have had no snow lying, or not for long, just showers of sleet and big flakes of snow
and lethal ice on the lanes
before sun up there’s no melt
early mornings I have sometimes taken Tilda into the big sheep pasture to avoid slipping
the sheep are tucked up warm somewhere, I hope.
though there’s a corpse lying out in the field in an advanced state of decomposition.
the grisly side of farming. doesn’t seem like good animal husbandry though.
some days we have been caught out by sudden showers and sheltered in a barn near the wood.
they pass quickly
and leave the ground sodden
on the winter dormant fields
when the sun comes back it sets everything on fire
but there are signs of spring
in Bullfer Grove the bluebells are showing.