Shrove Tuesday

batter, noun; 
a semi-liquid mixture of flour, egg and milk or water, used for making pancakes or for coating food before frying.

batter, verb; 
pummel, pound, buffet, thrash, lash, clobber, bop, biff.

It has been a lively week.

One day grey skies, the next blue.

One day calm and the next unruly.

All the more beguiling.

I have watched the wind carouse with hitherto orderly rows of poplars.

I have heard the wind whistling through the gaps in tight-knit hedges.

It has scattered fragments of untidy clouds across the horizon.

But the ash tree stands firm. Resolutely clinging to fat bunches of keys, waiting to unlock spring for us all.