Wormingford...

From Ronnie Blythe in today's Church Times:
 
"THE FIELD EDGES are being cut for the combine to go in.  People declare en passant that there are no skylarks (or martins or thrushes) this year, or that they have never seen so many; and I agree, for the return or vanishing of birds is now akin to weather as a form of salutation.  I pick raspberries, holding up the laden canes, getting in before the rain.  Chagall horses stand on the sloping grass and whisk away each other’s flies."