Easter Monday. On the Town Field the plough is trailed by a long pennant of gulls. After days of cold easterly winds, the topsoil has at last dried out just enough to allow Spring cultivations to begin. The Church Field was first; cultivations started on Maundy Thursday and it was soon populated by feasting Lapwings and Gulls. Around the church a pair of Mistle Thrushes threaded their way across the dark soil. In places the furrows lay shining in wet slabs, elsewhere the loam crumbles into a rich tilth. In spite of the Spring sunshine, the temperatures stay too low to consider planting. David’s ewes munch their way through the dried rains of last season’s late growth and we all wait for the first flush of grass. But the Song Thrush declaims his territory with vigour and there is at least a promise that better weather is on the way.