The reason I blog about life on a small farm in a sparsely populated, economically marginal, culturally deprived part of a scatter of small islands to the north of continental Europe is that I believe it to be full of natural drama, endlessly varied, diverse and stunningly beautiful – but not today.
Can’t help it – not today. The day is mild and still, there are patches of snow on the hills clinging without conviction. The cows are declining to calve – just eat what I supply them with.
The computer is sluggish, the laundry damp, the Nog doesn’t get a hill walk, and I struggle to anchor heavy woodworking machines singlehanded.
The ailing hornbeam growing in the doorway of the tumbledown ruin of the old farmhouse provides perches for a gang of jackdaws suggestive of Hitchcock’s ‘Birds’ but (thankfully) failing to deliver.
*
Sometimes the world provides a ride: sometimes you have to pedal.
todaysstoryblog 
Beautifully put. Down here you need a mental dinghy much of the time at the mo.
or pedalo?