The Difference of a Day - 3rd February 2021

Sometimes in a year there seem to be moments where the axis of the season shifts. A sudden burst of speed, like the Merlin and Skylark we watched this morning as they wove their dance of survival across the freshening sky.

Rain has pervaded the soul down here in Devon. The river runs past the farm like a commuter late for the last train. It carries with it all the idiosyncrasies of our combined impact on the landscape. Sediment from fields washed out and dirty farmyards full of hungry, housed and horny beasts.

But today, the other half of the skylark pair was on the wing over the Gratton. Watching closely no doubt as the Merlin nearly cut short the life of its kin. One can understand why Vaughan William’s ‘The Lark Ascending’ is the most played and most popular piece of classical music in Britain today. The inspiration he saw and heard is so profound that it could be one of the finest examples of natural abstraction creating popular culture. Certainly the soaring notes we heard this morning have heralded this feeling of advancement.

Notably too, the grass. Yesterday the thermometer breached 10 degrees and by this morning, patches of beaten down meadow had flushed green. Another little hint at oncoming warmth and the return of plentiful insects.

On Mill Barton we farm alongside nature. Since January 1st we have cut and laid 250m of hedge, returning the chippings to the hedgebank from where they were first converted from soil and sunlight into the trees now laid on their side. We have also planted another 100 native tree species. But not as a wood. Alongside native meadow restoration of varying soil type and plant community, we are encouraging copses and glades to spring up amongst the grasslands. This eventual mosaic of wood pasture, open meadow and scrubby boundaries are strategically designed to allow summer shade, but also to temper and cut down the fierce wind which blows across the land from all directions.

For now we have to wait and endure the next round of cold before these little shoots of change and dynamism burst forth into the spring sunshine. But today, despite the long range forecast, life has moved on in a great hare’s leap.