Nick Cave responding to a grieving mother who worries that she forsaw, or perhaps even willed, the death of her young child is one of the most beautiful things you will read today.
The farmer has been watching Doris predict the weather for three years and has not yet told anyone except Brian because he knows how it sounds.
It sounds like this:
When Doris grazes toward the east wall by midday, it rains that afternoon. Not sometimes. Every time. The farmer checked this against the Met Office records for eighteen months and found a correlation that he doesn't know what to do with and has not submitted to any journal and does not intend to.
When Doris lies down in the morning, the afternoon is dry.
When Doris takes the high route to the 400-metre contour at first light, there is wind by 9am.
The farmer mentioned this to the agricultural meteorologist who came to look at the farm's microclimate in 2022. The meteorologist said that sheep have been observed to respond to changes in barometric pressure and humidity cues that precede weather events, that the behaviour is not fully understood, and that in theory a fell sheep in a single location for multiple years could develop reliable behavioural responses to local atmospheric patterns that are earlier and more localised than any available forecast.
The farmer: "So she knows."
The meteorologist: "She responds. Whether she 'knows' is a philosophical question."
The farmer: "She went to the east wall at noon last Tuesday."
The meteorologist checked his records.
It rained from 3pm.
The meteorologist was quiet for a moment.
The meteorologist: "I'd watch her."
The farmer has been watching her for three years.
The farmer checks Doris before he checks his phone.
Doris is more reliable than his phone.
Doris is currently heading to the east wall.
The farmer is putting his waterproof on.
@BarbaraRich_law I remain a scroller here for posts like these. Wonderful. Art History, Modern European History and English Language lesson all in a few succinct lines.