April 2023 It’s nearly spring at last and Raining Sideways is finally back. Nothing has changed and yet everything has changed,! The last three years have been a long haul for us all.  Something called coronavirus suddenly arrived among us and swept across the globe. Lockdown followed in March 2020. How profoundly it suddenly changed…

And still the heatwave grips us, a drought, a hosepipe ban, no rain for weeks! The stream still trickles through the garden, but oh so low: the river creeps by, mud glistens. Temperatures rise daily, sun or cloud but no rain. The garden fries, but worse still, no grass for livestock. Lambs and ewes, separated…

Trees are greening, branches clothed at last. A reluctant Spring, mornings still harsh and fears of frost remain. Slowly camellias fade and daffodil and primroses give way to bluebells, stitchwort, carpets of wild garlic and the wonderful, vibrant pink of campion. The valley is changing colour from day to day. But tiny tomato plants stand…

We wake to a dull, cold, slate grey morning, a silent world. Bare trees silhouetted against the dark sky, a valley white and frozen, gripped by heavy frost. All is still, cold, dark, ominous; just as we expect, it’s January, it’s winter! But suddenly, abruptly, everything changes and the air becomes strangely warm, almost springlike.…

The golden autumn is suddenly gone! A howling wind roars through the valley, a huge whirlwind rages round the house. Golden leaves fill the air. One minute they gather in great piles only to take off again swirling and twirling up, up and away. Great trees bend back and forth as if to snap. The…

Is autumn surreptitiously creeping in already? Today Millie and I climbed the hill to the top fields under a watery sun, struggling to make its self seen in a drizzly grey sky. Then suddenly a brief burst of warm sunshine, hood down, waterproof coat off, hurrah. A cohort of geese flashed across the sky like…