Room temperature...

Sunlight is pouring in through the arched windows of the Old Sunday School on another beautiful spring morning. Yet I know more about what’s happening in China, the USA, Spain, Italy and the rest of the UK than about what’s going on in the village. I’ve been assailed by gout for more than a week (hint: don’t ever get it!), but now, thankfully, the medication is kicking in… and the wild-haired old man in the mirror is no longer grimacing in pain.

Despite the news, which gets more depressing by the day, spring is bursting with new life and colour and birdsong. I heard a tawny owl hooting in the night. Last year I saw my first swallow on April 3, but I have yet to see the first swallow of what will no doubt be the strangest summer of my life. The weather forecast for today - like every other sodding day - is ‘room temperature’.

A pre-lockdown shot of St Botolph's Church in the village of Allerthorpe...