21 December 1918 One of the rooks flapped lazily on to the back of a sheep, nodding this way and that like an old acquaintance returned

Surrey

Light, very dim at first, began to spread across the sky long before sunrise. It showed the shepherd at work among the ewes in a great pen; it penetrated the wood and made the gaunt trees mysterious, until the yellow sun, coming above a long streak of cloud, told of a clear day. Lambs, newly born, shambled about with plaintive cries, but the dams were still. A pair of rooks alighted on the hurdles, and their beaks moved as though, if they could, they would have talked in whispers; then one flapped lazily on to the back of a sheep, nodding this way and that like an old acquaintance returned; a wren, hopping from among faggots stacked along the rickyard, sang a few notes timidly, and whistled fewer as he flew among the fowls hungry for their morning meal; the robin warbled mach longer from an apple-tree.

From the archive, 26 December 1903: A farmer's Christmas in the Dales Read more

On the south side of the down, where turf above the chalk springs to the footfall, the first daisies are in bloom; lower, along a bramble hedgeside, a few pale primroses have opened among the moss. About noon birds come and spread their wings open to the sun, basking in unusual warmth.