This year, for Easter, the weather did an extraordinary and wonderful thing, at least here in southern Scotland. Although we did not have a particularly cold winter, spring seemed very slow coming – the weather was consistently grim, with a lot of rain, often falling as hail, very big rough winds and a general gloomy greyness, retarding growth and depressing spirits. This is not just simple hedonism – this is hill-sheep country and economically as well as emotionally you really need grass growth before the end of March, so the ewes produce good milk for their lambs, which are usually born the second week of April (Easter week this year – a delightful thought). The eclipse on 20 March was a washout – so heavy was the cloud and solid the rain that even the increased