Saturday 30 May 2009

Just an ordinary Saturday.




The weather is so glorious that I have become quite indolent, wafting through the meadows with Tess, brushing against the buttercups and getting pollen all over my trouser legs, stopping to sniff the may blossom. noticing little clumps of wild flowers here and there - nothing in a rush.


For the farmer, however, things are very different for the Silage Season is upon us. Today he has got his Grass Cutter out of cold storage and sharpened it. Tomorrow morning, once the dew is gone from the grass, he will be cutting the big meadows ready for the sub-contract silage men to come and forage it on Monday afternoon.


For the uninitiated, there are really two kinds of silage. If you see the machinery in the fields after the grass is cut, sometimes it is a forage harvester, which gathers up the grass and blows it into a trailer to be carted off to a silage clamp; other times there will be a rower, a baler and a wrapper, so that the grass is heaped up into rows, baled into round bales (sometimes square bales) and then wrapped in black or pale green plastic. These bales are then gathered up and transported to a spare corner of the farm for storage until winter. If you wonder why they are gathered up so quickly, it is because the rooks just love attacking them and making holes in the plastic - that lets the air in and stops the curing process.


This morning I met friends for coffee in our little market town. We do this most Saturday mornings. What would we do without friends? I got to wondering - is this just a woman thing?


Do men meet their men friends - I suppose they do for a beer sometimes, but the groups one sees sitting around in cafes and pubs are usually women. Or is it that it is usually women who are left alone as they on average have a longer life span. I don't know the answer - but maybe some of you men out there can tell me - do you meet friends for a natter? My friends are a great comfort and support to me - they are an important and essential part of my life.


While out on my walk I managed to snap these two Swaledale lambs - so pretty and if you look carefully you will see that their horns are already growing.


Tomorrow I hope to capture some silaging photographs. The weather forecast is superb for a few days so we shall not have to be scanning the sky for rain clouds; that will make a change from the last few years. We might even get a bit of haymaking later in June.

16 comments:

Grizz………… said...

I rarely stir from my riverbank burrow anymore for such things as coffee at a local café.

Some men do meet regularly, however. My late friend Frank went practically every morning of his long life, no matter where he lived, to a local restaurant for breakfast with a group of men. Every little country-town or city neighborhood restaurant has its "liar's table" and it was always a part of Frank's daily routine.

I keep meaning to take up the habit myself…someday.

Dave King said...

Thanks for that post. It was interesting and informative. I've always thought there was a frustrated countryman inside every townie. We are a big (largely) untapped audience.

HelenMWalters said...

Sounds like you're having a great time. Long may it continue.

Leenie said...

We fed corn silage to our Holsteins. We had the corn custom chopped and crushed into a huge pit where it cured until the whole farm smelled like a brewery.
The curing process made it give off a lot of heat so the cows got warm feed all winter. I imagine most farmers here go to plastic containers as well. Interesting!

Elizabeth said...

Silage!
Now there's a word I haven't heard in a dog's age.
I wish I like coffee but you can always count on me to want 'a nice cup if tea'.
Maybe a toasted tea cake too.
Love the thought of you and Tess wandering around getting buttercup pollen on your boots/trousers
and damp dew I bet.

gleaner said...

I can't say I've ever heard of silage, so I'll be back for the next installment. Lovely to read about your gentle day.

moonandhare said...

Lovely photos! I do think women tend to confide more in each other. My father meets for coffee regularly with some of his retired farmer friends, but they mostly tell tall tales, I think. :)

Crafty Green Poet said...

Interesting about silage, I didn't know that much about it!

Pat Posner said...

Isn't it great to have a few glorious days after all the winds and rain! Lots of wild flowers here, too. Ted and Tim like rolling in them.

I haven't met up for coffee with friends for a while now - must do something about that. It's a shame we don't live nearer each other.

Happy Silaging to the farmer

XXPat

Woman in a Window said...

I'm thinking men don't meet with their friends quite as often but I wonder if it's because they're so busy out there tending fields. My husband works his 40+ hours a week and simply is tired after that. I work 16 hours a week. I've just got that extra time...although I rarely do go out with my friends anyway.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Scribe - if I lived in your burrow I would feel like you - why would you ever want to venture forth to anywhere else?

The Weaver of Grass said...

Think you are right Dave - although some townspeople seem to be afraid of the silence in the countryside. And speaking for myself I feel quite afraid of the noise in towns.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Glad you are enjoying hearing about silage!!!
Installment today and there should be another tomorrow. In the meantime enjoy the wonderful weather all of you.

Heather said...

I haven't had Internet connection for several days and am so behind with my blogging that I'm running out of time to leave comments on every post. The photos on your last three posts bring childhood flooding back. I think the whole of the UK has had fine weather, and what a difference it makes to our lives.

BT said...

How lovely to meet friends for coffee once a week. I don't have many friends here in Ireland, left them in Derbyshire, so I miss that.
Gorgeous lambs and lovely blog.

Janice Thomson said...

Everything is such a lush green there...here it is already turning brown from lack of rain and we live in a rain forest...hmmm...what's wrong with this picture....