Friday 28.3.2020

An increasingly weird and surreal few days, instructions changing daily. So as in the army, obey the most recent order, and here we are, socially distanced. But then we are anyway up here on the hill. And counting blessings galore, in particular the space that surrounds us: our own few acres of Scottish land plus, about 4 or 5 hundred yards up the road, a 300 acre wood for our delight and relief.

And younger dog and I were up there early this morning - while old dogs slept on :) - blown up the road for a change as overnight the wind had gone round and was coming down from the north with the
odd bit of sleet and hail on it. Cold:sunshine one minute, freezing showers the next. The deer were startled to see us up there so early but it was a good place to be,the fresh air with that extra early morning tang, the birds in full morning chorus mode.

Couldn`t have been more diffferent yesterday afternoon and evening when the sun burst through the stone grey skies we`d had all week, the wind dropped and all we could do was sit around soaking up the warmth. It was even possible to spend half an hour at the top of the field, watching the sun go down, without turning to stone.

Tonight, then, the clocks "spring forward" but I suspect we won`t be springing anywhere very far in the foreseeable.