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.