The swifts are back.
It is the most splendid thing.
I first heard them this afternoon, through the open door, and I have been listening to their calling and watching them wheeling and swooping ever since. There are not many of them yet, but they are here, they are with us, and warmth and summer peace comes on their wings.
It is unspeakably beautiful here now. I could hardly drive this evening for wanting to stop and look across the valley at the distant fells, smoky purple in the setting sun. There are bluebells and blackbirds, and white billows of wild garlic along the roadsides, and the fresh green of the new leaves. It is ace living here in the springtime.
I did not go running this morning. Partly this was because by the time we actually got up we had already missed the greater part of the morning, but mostly I am trying to encourage my legs to bend normally again, and I think that a couple of exertion-free days might help a bit.
When we got up we ambled around the cricket pitch with the dogs for a while, and watched the village children having their ju-jitsu lesson in the sunshine. Then we thought that we would go and do things to the camper van.
The picture at the top is my efforts. I have been tiddling about with it for a few days now, and as you can see, most of it is still only blocked out in the base colours and not yet painted, but I am making progress, slowly. You can’t see very much of it, of course, because the bed is in the way, actually the reason that it is taking a long time because it is eight feet tall. That’s is a lot to paint with a tiny paintbrush.
Mark did his own tiddling about whilst I painted. He fitted a lock to the bathroom door. We do not actually need one of these, but now that the children are older it is a courtesy to provide one. Then he messed about with some wires and dials, and then we diminished our productivity considerably by remembering that we had half a bottle of champagne left over in the fridge from our night off on Thursday.
This was perfectly drinkable, because we have discovered that as long as you do not let champagne get warm then it keeps its fizz for days. You have got to get it out of the fridge, pour the first glass and then put it straight back. Even if you do not bother with a stopper or a teaspoon or any of the other things that you are supposed to do, it still stays fizzy as long as it has not got warm. The fizz is a bit less sharp than it is on first opening, but not very much, and actually I prefer it like that anyway. Too many bubbles give me hiccups.
We drank champagne and danced together in the sunny camper van, before remembering that we were actually parked right next to the taxi rank, and that all of our acquaintance could see us getting squiffy and giggly. Worse, some of the night shift drivers had actually started work already, even though it was only three in the afternoon, and were looking at us as though we were hedonistic sloth personified.
To make sure we had thoroughly earned their contempt, we closed the camper van up and went home to bed for a couple of hours before we went to work.
It has been the nicest of days, with a bubbly holiday feeling to it.
The swifts have brought the first breaths of the summer.
