Falling Away

A quick stop at our most local nursery and farm shop to top up with essentials - yogurt and cauliflower. The herd is all part of the same business: some of the milk produces very good ice cream (though not yogurt, oddly - they buy that in). This ridge-top field is their calving field - rather unusually, they let the cows calve outside. Its not unusual to see two or three new-born calves and their mothers here at the same time (but I can't remember if they are spring or autumn calving)

I have very carefully kept the camera level: the slope is real. In fact it gets steeper and steeper as it falls away to the left. In effect, it is the north edge of the Cotswolds, dropping 100m to the South Warwickshire plain, where our orchard and bees are. On clear days, the profile of cattle on the high ridge, in front of the lowland behind, can be spectacular. I went to look, but it was not that kind of day, so a view of the herd through the blossom works better

The latest convoy left the village for Lviv. A fire engine, an ambulance and three ATVs. Ferry tonight; Germany; Poland; borders and paperwork. All packed with medical, fire safety and other supplies; sorted and loaded by MrsM and 3 or 4 others of our generation. Driven by people with serious, focussed expressions, comfortable with spanners and grease-guns. I have pictures of course, but maybe not for the internet, even this benign corner. The dissonance with the news of American betrayal and surrender is nauseating. "The habits of the vandal, the autocrat, the gangster and the fool" wrote the paper; well put