Wild roses and pale yellow honeysuckle spill from the hedgerows along the narrow road which winds up a small hill to the church at Drumcree. Red poppies glow in the surrounding fields, a reminder that the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme falls today. It is hard to believe, as Sir Ronnie Flanagan has warned, that the idyllic rural scene could be the setting this weekend for violent clashes between Orange marchers and the RUC.
There was little sign of any preparations for a siege when I visited Drumcree earlier this week. Perhaps, like the rest of us, the security forces and the Orange Order are both waiting for news of an outcome to the wheeling and dealing at Castle Buildings. As I write, the shape of a compromise seems tantalisingly close, but the main parties are still circling each other.
Back at Drumcree, in a field just below the church, a white marquee has been erected. I assumed that it must have been put there in readiness for the Orange marchers.
As I walked towards it a young man, dressed more for Glastonbury than the trenches of Portadown, asked if he could help me. Paul White is pastor of the New Covenant Church in Weymouth and has come here, with about 15 members of his congregation, to pray for peace.
There are echoes of the Day of Reconciliation proposed by Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair in their joint statement at Hillsborough, which seems to have fallen by the wayside just when, some would say, it is most needed.
He asked if I would join them to pray for the success of the talks at Stormont. I am not a believer and think that different versions of Christ's message are still responsible for many of the divisions in Northern Ireland, but we joined hands in shared hope.
They asked that Gerry Adams should be given the grace to emerge as "a real statesman" capable of leading his people to peace; that David Trimble, who "has already shown such courage", find the strength to go the extra mile for peace; that the victims, who have suffered so much, will be touched by divine peace.
It has become almost commonplace to say that the victims are too often forgotten but - surely? - it must be the weight of their collective pain which bears most heavily on the politicians these days. Last week I joined the "Long March" of members of the unionist community on their journey from Derry to Portadown. I had half expected that there would be anger and aggression but found instead a group of people driven by grief for the past, and deeply fearful about the future.
Very many of those who walked have had direct experience of violence over the past 30 years. Jim Dixon, who rises at 6 a.m. each day and drives to join the march from his home in Enniskillen, was horribly injured in the Remembrance Day bombing of 1987. He still suffers almost continuous pain, yet said to me: "The pity of all this is that the Irish are the best people in the world. Why is it that we cannot get along with one another?"
Jonathan Bell, one of the organisers of the march, grew up in south Armagh. His father was a Church of Ireland rector and he remembers, all too vividly, the day in 1983 when neighbours rushed into his church to tell him that hooded men had burst into a service at a nearby Pentecostal hall in Darkley and opened fire on the congregation. As Gerry Adams quite rightly points out, no community in Northern Ireland has a monopoly of suffering. At Colgagh in Co Monaghan, the parents of Brian McKinney and John McClory at last found some respite after more than 20 years of grieving for their lost sons, when gardai found the remains of two bodies. Mrs McKinney was asked on RTE how she felt and answered "content". It is the example of such people that we must cling to as the talks appear likely to extend beyond the deadline set by the British and Irish governments. The opportunity for healing and reconciliation is what the peace process has been about since John Hume first began to talk to Gerry Adams over a decade ago. It was always bound to take longer than the politicians and the rest of us hoped, but at last the outline of a compromise which could get over this hurdle of decommissioning has become clear.
Difficulties remain for both sides. The unionists are adamant they will not sit in an executive with Sinn Fein unless and until the IRA has started the hand-over of weapons. Sinn Fein continues to argue there can be no progress on decommissioning until new structures have been set in place, including the appointment of the executive.
It may be that even as you read this, gentle reader, a breakthrough has been announced. If that is the case, it will give us reason for celebration that another milestone has been reached in the long, long journey towards a secure peace.
But even if this has not happened, we must not be too cast down. We have always known that this stage of the journey might take longer than the timetable pencilled into the diary of the British Prime Minister.
It is hugely important that the elements of a deal - the careful "sequencing" of the formation of an executive, the timing of decommissioning - are now in the public domain. It will allow the broader public in Northern Ireland to discuss these ideas, to set the cost of the concessions that either side may be called upon to make against the prize of peace and real politics. The hope must be that, as in the past, the ordinary decent people of the North will choose politics.
Over the past weeks there has been rumour, speculation and a political process which has swung from elation to deep pessimism. Almost inevitably, this has been accompanied by violence as each side has tried to increase the pressure on the politicians.
There has been talk, particularly in the British media, of Northern Ireland facing into the abyss. In fact, the protests and talks of recent weeks have been conducted, for the most part, with dignity and common sense. People know very well what is at stake here, and how important it is not only to protect the gains that have already been made, but the sometimes unsteady progress towards a better society.
Whatever the outcome of the talks at Castle Buildings, there will be other crises, equally frightening, in the weeks and months ahead. Building peace in a deeply divided society was always going to be a long and bumpy process. We must remember what the politicians have already achieved and look with courage to the future.