Country Diary

Dry weather persisted all through the end of March and into April. The hill was cracked and dusty without rain, and small eddies of wind rustled menacingly through the flossy grass. Into the last week of April, it was blatantly obvious that the slightest match or cigarette end could spark catastrophe – like many other parts of the UK, the Galloway Hills had been dried to a crisp.

I had been working on a hill fence for several weeks