There is something about newly ploughed earth, blue sky and the Autumn sun, that just makes me want to kick off my boots and stand barefeet on the warm soil. Reconnecting with the soil and it’s age. This week, I resisted, but I wanted to.
Instead I took photos. Photos of farmers doing what they have done for centuries.
I love this time of year. The last few weeks have seen the fields and lanes buzzing with farm vehicles bringing in the harvest. Farmers and contractors working late into the night to beat the weather. I accept that I’ll need to wait in the wider parts of the lane, to allow convoys of tractors, pulling trailers, to pass.
Next follows the Harvest Festivals and the meet ups. This is the time for the various farming societies to organize ploughing matches. Different classes for different eras. There are horse drawn ploughs, steam powered ploughing and everything since.
There are no frills. No fun fairs, like the Country Shows. It really is about the ploughing. With hedge laying and dry stone wall competitions, which seem to go hand in hand. Traditional country skills.
And just as important is the chance for friends to meet up.
Living with two grey shaggy dogs, my eye was caught by a patient dog, walking the furrows behind his owner. I wonder how many miles this team has walked together.
So, another ploughing match is over. Prizes won and handed out. Tractors loaded up and hauled home. Soon the whole field will be ploughed over, leaving only tall tales. Until next year.
How fabulous!
🙂
Gorgeous photo composition ! really lovely
My Great Gramps bred Shires and my Gramps was a horseman who farmed through the change over ..I remember my mother talking of the Steam thrashing machine arriving on it’s annual visit.
We used to have some hedge laying tools at home when I was small I remember learning to chop sticks with a small bill hook ..it was a lovely tool to use , comfy and balanced in the hand.
You would have loved it at the event. It’s wonderful to see these skills been used and honed. I hope younger farmers and enthusiasts will take over one day. We must have been among the youngest there. That was without taking the children.
Every time I pop over to your blog there is something that I love. This time it is the vintage tractors. I know it must seem a bit weird, but I just have a thing about them.
I love seeing the vintage tractors too. Nice to see them doing what they were designed to do. Sometimes old timer tractor clubs have a run around the lanes, near us. Must take in a few pubs, I suspect. The cry will go up and we’ll race down to the gate to watch them. Every time!