Tag: agriculture

October 11th – Coming back from Shenstone, I remembered the field of carrots I’d spotted earlier in the year. I checked out the crop, and saw the lush green foliage was still apparently in rude health.

Unable to resist a look at the product of the season, I uprooted a few and found them to be a curious short but fat strain of carrot, but they looked healthy and tasty, with a lovely colour.

It’s not often you see carrots growing around here; last time was at the top of Lazy Hill a couple of years ago.

October 4th – Winching myself up Shire Oak Hill at Sandhills at sunset, I noticed the potatoes in the fields that stretched to the canal had been stripped of their foliage ready for harvest. I love that view of Ogley Hay and St. James from here, and it looked beautiful and autumnal. 

Elsewhere, harvested fields have already been ploughed, harrowed and replanted, with spring-like carpets of green sprouting winter crops, with almost springlike colour.

Whatever time of year, the farming continues.

September 12th – A little local mystery solved, perhaps. This autumn, the Canada geese population have been very active indeed over Brownhills in the early morning and in the hour or so before sunset. Groups travelling en masse from one place to another, honking joyfully as they pass.

I love the noise they make and it always makes me smile. And there’s been a massive increase this year.

Returning home from work at dusk past Jockey Meadows where the crops had been harvested a week or so ago, I noted a huge flock of the birds, ground feeding on the spilled grain in the stubble. The birds were busily browsing, getting a good feed.

There must have been in excess of 500 birds.

My grandad used to call this otherwise lost seed ‘gleanings’ and traditionally, it was collected and used to feed fancy birds like guineafowl, who were therefore known as ‘gleanies’.

I assume the geese have been doing this for a few weeks as local cereal crops have been harvested – possibly an extra stop off on their normal journeys between daytime waters and night time roosting spots.

August 5th – An early evening drop into Stonnall to call on a mate on the way home from work took place under some remarkably threatening skies. There were a few spots, but rain didn’t catch me however, and I was reminded near Lynn of the spectacular panoramic beauty that occurs unexpectedly in the local countryside.

Harvest seems to have stalled for the moment, and crops still languish in the fields, adding a welcome golden hue to the landscape. Despite the weather, it really is high summer now.

July 31st – Rain is predicted for next week, so Home Farm at Sandhills were taking no chances, and when I passed by on the canal, the oilseed rape was being harvested.

The combine didn’t come close enough for me to work out how it was working, but it blew out a constant stream of chopped plant matter presumably with the oily black seeds threshed out. The machine really was shifting and the whole thing dramatic and impressive, throwing up clouds of dust as it worked.

I’ve often wondered how producing such tiny seeds for oil can be viable, but it clearly is. It seems a long time since these fields were glowing yellow with the bloom of it…

July 26th – The harvest started a few days before the weather broke yesterday, bringing it to a juddering halt – I note some bales in fields now, but mostly the combine harvester hasn’t been around much yet.

This field of wheat at Sandhills looks mostly ready now, but look closely at those plump ears and there’s still a fair way to go yet.

Hopefully, the current damp spell will pass quickly and the harvest can continue before mould sets in.

July 16th – I know the deer have been on Home Farm at Sandhills for a while – I accidentally photographed a lone stag there last autumn – but I’ve never seen a large group. Until today.

A grouo of red deer females, with three fawns, were loafing in a field margin but the canal, at the conjunction between the oilseed rape crop and some wheat. They were not nervous and seemed comfortable.

I think they’re getting here from CLayhanger Common, as previously I’ve seen footprints on Catshill Junction Bridge, and there seems to be a lot of trampling in the hedge-gaps.

The local deer population really is ubiquitous now.

July 12th – Meanwhile, at Jockey Meadows, the coos are getting stuck in, browsing the scrub and spreading the cowpat love. I’m fascinated in their behaviour; they tend to operate in a loose group, and move to different parts of the pasture at different times of day. It’s almost as if they know they have a job to do, and are carefully, conscientiously doing it.

I love these gentle, charming beasts.

July 8th – Short morning at work on a very windy, wolf of a day – beautiful to look at, but a the very devil to ride on. A short run over to Lichfield in the late afternoon via Chasewater was rewarded with beautiful views of ripening oilseed rape and wheat in fields around hHome Farm at Sandhills. 

A lovely afternoon but hard work on the bike!

July 3rd – I passed Grove Hill near Stonnall late afternoon, under a stunning blue sky with light clouds. Currently with barley on the lower slopes and wheat on the upper, it’s a timeless sight that can’t have altered much in a century or more.

The other thing I like about this is it clearly illustrates the purpose of the hedge and lone three; they are there to limit soil erosion. Think about it.