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An itinerant observer and thinker about life in general, sharing some moments of wandering and wonderment.

Wednesday 21 August 2013

HARVEST IN QUICK.

Yesterday, I took a short break from administering to Dads estate, a welcome reprieve.
I drove out to see Charlie the dog trainer, who (bless him) with all his many years of experience  had never seen such a young dog with such severe crepitus of the joints.
But fair play to the daft dog, he is still gentle and kind and willing to make new friends.
On the way back, we stopped at an old watering hole, a lovely place  only to find that since May of this year, dogs are no longer allowed.
Such a shame as, with the mad mutt struggling, a walk in the shade of the trees would have been ideal for him, plus  a very cooling, relaxing swim. Sadly it was not meant to be.
So ... we wandered slowly along a nearby footpath, only to witness some local harvesting.
The dust raised by these voracious machines, filling a quiet afternoon with a haze of dust.
It was obvious to me that given the rain potentially forecast, these farmers are working as hard as they possibly can, tying to get a good dry crop in before the forecast front is due.
And oh my, like so many farms around here, they are working very hard even late into the night and whilst driving locally the traffic is often slowed by these big machines.
On one side of the dividing hedge there was the grain crop  being actively  harvested and yet with just a field boundary between the two, the later potato crops are still in flower.
As were the poppies, so reminiscent of Remembrance Day with their bright red petals

<<< This one was unusual in that the petals were crinkly not smooth and stood out amongst the crowd growing along the side of the dry, dusty old farm track. I also ate my first ripe elderberries of the year though the sloes were still green and far from ripe yet. Traditionally they are picked after the first frost, hopefully a long way off yet.

Returning back to the car the combine harvester was offloading all that it had just reaped

from the field and a fountain of grain was being poured into a patiently waiting trailer which then drove off  to put this load into nearby storage on the farm. Not many minutes later it was driving back into position awaiting the next heavy load to be poured in.
Hopefully ... most of this years grain harvest in the Fens will be well stored by now.

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