They’re out. If you needed confirmation that Spring was here, well, here it is. The cows are out by day. Imagine that you’ve survived the winter on dull food and tasted fresh fodder for the first time in months, well, there you have it, the cows today.

From upstairs in the farmhouse, I watch the farmer as he opens the wire to the field and lets the cows across the road to fresh pasture. I can tell he’s relieved. After a long enough Winter of feeding and cleaning indoors, he lets them out into the fresh air on a fine Spring morning.

They seem to dance in fresh grass or at the very least, jump, locking horns with the cow next to them on tasting freedom. Some few more weeks, they’ll be larger in number and will be out by day and night. All in good time.

For now, the storms have abided and there is no damage. The bellow of the cows birthing carries across the Spring breeze telling us that the season is well under way. Our three year old walks into the house having seen his first cow calf (in his memory) and is in a daze at the wonder of it all and at the Daddy who helped the cow to calve. Daddy, his hero. All, it seems, is right with the world. Just so.