I sit in shade of prunus hedge,
The sound of Satie’s Gnossiene number four dribbles from my phone. I look across the valley towards the three stationary wind turbines on the horizon that undulates across the sky. For days now the temperature has been in the mid nineties and the air has been still, the sky an unblemished azure. This is about to change, there is a breeze, the red leaves on the hedge tremble in expectation. If anything it’s getting hotter and a hazy mist imperceptibly fills the valley. Fluffy white clouds appear from nowhere, they billow and form a ridge as if a giant invisible steam engine is at work. No birds fly and have stopped singing, even the crows are skwawkless, they know something is coming. The breeze increases, the underneath of the cotton wool ball clouds are tinged with grey. But… it doesn’t come, no thunder, no lightning, the clouds fade away as quickly as they came, the relentless sunshine is back. Two magpies sqawk to each other, the silence is broken, the breeze fades away. It’s another sticky night in prospect in the hills in Aberbanc. Maybe we’ll see rain tomorrow, or on Sunday. The weather has gone awry, I ponder this as a handful of swifts systematically fly two feet above the field picking off confused insects along the way. I take the hose pipe to the beans and the courgettes, seeing as mother nature ain’t about to do the honours.

Harry Rogers, 23rd July 2021.