ON THE BEET

Following my last post "A COP's CAUTION." I had to smile today as I drove along the same Fen road where I got cautioned for parking up for just a few minutes to take a photo. Just half a mile from where I had parked was a large lorry ... hazards brightly flashing ...

and there in the field, followed by a mass of seagulls, was a tractor harvesting sugar beet.

Now what is unusual about that, is the fact that this is mid February ... the harvest here is late, very late! Usually around here, the harvest is completed by late November, but the weather conditions have been so bad that the beet harvesters have not been able to work.

But just this one photograph will show you (poor as it is) what was happening today.

One man busily lifting the beet and a truck waiting to take it to the factory. What you see here is a root crop that will be turned into the sugar that you add to your drinks, food etc etc. The alternative to sugar cane, harvested abroad in "foreign lands" this is a home grown U.K crop and vital to our economy. I personally never buy cane sugar as I believe in supporting our local farmers. I once lived near the sugar beet factory in Bury St Edmunds and ... I have to admit that on processing days, the smell was strong, that combined with the local brewery and a perfume factory ... yes at times ones scent senses went into overdrive ... but it was all local industry hard at work and was acceptable.

Now, going back to me and my sense of humour, just after taking the above photo and ...

having driven off, I passed a police car, similar to that of the other day and I wondered ...

did that police officer, gently reprimand the patiently waiting beet transport truck with it's hazard lights flashing ... "You've parked in a dangerous place." Somehow, I think not.

See there is one rule for some and a different for others and that sadly is the way the world works. There is an old Yorkshire saying "Different strokes for different folks."

How very true that is.

P.S. today 14th Feb lots of "Mud on the road" signs magically appeared after a friend had an accident on a muddy bend late the other night, rolled her car right over on the roof and miraculously escaped out of the drivers window, which was open at the time of the accident. The car a solidly built Volvo got towed away and has been written off. On her behalf I went to see it today, to take photo's and was amazed she escaped without any injury at all. Unfortunately one of the hazards of farming country is that farm machinery, especially in these wet earth conditions, is that they leave mud on the roads, something us country folk accept as part and parcel of living rural life.One simply has to be observant and make due allowances for conditions in all types of weather.