Making Hay and the Sun is Shining

The relief is immense – both meadows have been cut:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Eleventh hour final checking for Ragwort before the farmer arrives. This lovely corner of Lesser Knapweed was not cut in order to leave something for the birds and insects.

If it stays fine, the farmer will be back in a couple of days to row it all up and then to bale it and will take the bales back to his farm near Sandwich. Each time he visits he has to trail through the centre of Deal with all this stuff but he remains very positive and upbeat about it all.

Not only has this meant that the meadows have now been harvested of their bounty which was, for them, the most important thing to get achieved this year, but also we have had a chance to spend some time talking to a man who has been farming the land round here all of his life, which is now nearly 80 years, as his father was before him.

Looking forward now to seeing what happens next after the bales have all gone but there is still months of growing time left in the year.