We finally packed the combine away on Friday having finished harvesting the winter beans. It has been one of the most disappointing harvests I can recall. Considering the work and expense it takes to sow and nurture the crops from autumn through to harvest, I find it somewhat depressing to survey the rather small heaps of wheat, barley and beans tucked away in the corner of the grain stores.
They say farmers are never happy, which is not exactly true as we all love what we do. We gain so much satisfaction from seeing our livestock and nature thriving, and the fields prepared for the first new tender shoots to emerge giving us hope for next year’s harvest.
Most farmers, despite facing difficult growing and harvesting conditions as we have just experienced, the catastrophic setbacks when hit by TB, or other diseases such as Foot & Mouth, crop disease, severe weather and unexpected loses amongst our livestock, would not change from farming to any other profession.
We have been hoping for an Indian summer and it came with knobs on. How typical for fine weather to arrive just as the children return to school. I hope the nation’s children on returning to school will find themselves in a safe space where life is simple. They should not have to tread on eggshells worrying in case their words offend. They should not be too scared to use the bathrooms in case boys dressed as girls are hovering behind the doors, or at a loss as to know what to call their chums who were Sally last week and now insist on being called David.
99% of the young people who have decided to ‘transition’ do so for the wrong reasons. Yes, it will get them the attention and sympathy they crave from their peers, but what it will not give them is happiness, and that is 100% certain.
Following the G20 summit which concluded with a declaration which avoided condemning Russia for the war in Ukraine, PM Rishi Sunak said the declaration had "very strong language about Russia's illegal war in Ukraine" and “I think that is a good, strong outcome”.
Blimey, if that declaration is strong, God help the UK if Sunak is our first line of defence against an aggressor. It looks to me like open doors and rolling over. As Ukraine said, that was ‘nothing to be proud of’.