The Globe's Still Working.

"Fifteenth of May. Cherry blossom. The swifts
Materialize at the tip of a long scream
Of needle . "Look! They're back! Look! And they're gone
On a steep

Controlled scream of skid
Round the house-end and away under the cherries.
Gone.
Suddenly flickering in sky summit, three or four together,
Gnat-whisp frail, and hover-searching, and listening

For air-chills - are they too early? With a bowing
Power-thrust to left, then to right, then a flicker they
Tilt into a slide, a tremble for balance,
Then a lashing down disappearance

Behind elms.
They've made it again,
Which means the globe's still working, the Creation's
Still waking refreshed, our summer's
Still all to come."

- Ted Hughes, 'Swifts'

Despite the inclement weather, I was hanging out of the kitchen window at breakfast time watching these heralds of Summer screech past in a flash at breakneck speed.

It's a marvel that they travel from the farthest reaches of southern Africa just to nest in our back green, wintering in Britain as they have done since Roman times.