The swallows are back.   Gracie and I see one sitting on the telephone wire outside the kitchen. Last spring we discovered one of their nests in a corner of the ceiling above the wood store.

Just as the flowers take turns to bloom, the return of the swallows marks the change in the season.    There’s something very reassuring about experiencing life this way – and it’s also a little poignant.

As I re-learn the names of leaves and flowers and birds, Gracie is learning too – and as she gets older all this knowledge will become second nature.   This is something we’d hoped for when we  imagined a life in the country.   The swallows’ return is a sign that we are settling in.