Pause a minute, listen and smile

glow worm

Member
Location
cornwall
So many overwhelming things happening to all of us with rocketing costs etc, worldwide disaster just a twitchy finger and madness away, but I had my pause, listen and smile moment today. A reminder to SO appreciate our farming life and HOW important it is to fight for its future. April 24 2022. You could swear it was Summer. 07.30. T shirt, blissfully warm, and I do mean warm, breeze. Blue skies, fluffy clouds. Pussy Willow in full tassel. Birds in full song all around me .. at least 14 different species. 4 Deer enjoying our future silage! I know, I should be mad but its such a lovely sight. NO Starlings! They left about a week ago. The lack of chattering and clean cars is bliss! Tradition based on previous years is that another wave will come through in about a weeks time bringing scour problems in the herd but maybe we'll be luckier this year .. and that's not today. The smell of crushed grass and damp earth from some field work. The first Summer migrant heard last week .. a Chiffchaff., always the first here. I wish I could bottle it all to bring out when life becomes overwhelming again. Next week is forecast to be considerably colder but just for now, I'm going to lean on the gate and just enjoy. Any good pause, listen and smile moments in your area? Maybe checking stock outside? Cold breath caught in early sun rays? Cobwebs stretched across brambles with dew suspended in them? Fresh calved cow licking off steaming calf? Go on! Share the other side of the cold hearted farmer that so many townies only see us as.
 
Just having a coffee in a customers field. Bugs, birds, butterflies, baby bunnies, buds out on the hedge, the grass smells glorious where I’ve crushed it with tyres.
In the field next to me there are a bunch of rams all lay in the sun with necks stretched upwards catching all the rays they can.
Spring drilling and rolling going on the other side of me.
I’ve got an easy day (hope I haven’t jinxed that!!) so I’m taking it steady and pootling around gently.
First swallows on the wire by the house yesterday.
 

glow worm

Member
Location
cornwall
Just having a coffee in a customers field. Bugs, birds, butterflies, baby bunnies, buds out on the hedge, the grass smells glorious where I’ve crushed it with tyres.
In the field next to me there are a bunch of rams all lay in the sun with necks stretched upwards catching all the rays they can.
Spring drilling and rolling going on the other side of me.
I’ve got an easy day (hope I haven’t jinxed that!!) so I’m taking it steady and pootling around gently.
First swallows on the wire by the house yesterday.
1st Swallows!! I'm SO jealous!!
 

britt

Member
BASE UK Member
That's just greedy having green AND spotted!!
Green woodpecker love ants, so you usually see them on the ground on permanent pasture.
It always makes me laugh when people tell me that they have seen a exotic bird "probably a parrot", "it was green and yellow with some red" that must have escaped from somewhere. They don't believe that we have such a colourful bird as a native.
 

glow worm

Member
Location
cornwall
Only two, but in good voice.
Way back when, before all the lockdowns, when the first 10 or so swallows arrived, we had one in the collecting yard at the back of the parlour. He ( or she) was really viscous for a over a week, driving all other swallows out of the yard. No other swallow was allowed anywhere near until 'the' one arrived and they were seen side by side on the beam at the back of the parlour for the rest of the summer! I've always been convinced that it was the missing partner that had got separated and he (or she) had been waiting for her to arrive! Everyone ... aaahhh!
 
I've had a large number of ladybirds overwintering on my landing , bunched up in the corners of the windows . I've had this overwintering thing for a time now , but possibly more this winter , and always in the same place (Kidds !) With the onset of warmer weather of late , I left a couple of windows open , and I notice tonight that most have gone . I very often have had red admiral butterflies overwinter and the odd bumble bee too in my office window , but for some reason , none this year . We have a few wrens , a few goldfinches , a few robins , and a couple of resident blackbird pairs . . Don't suppose they're the same ones every year , but they act very territorially . The cock bird stretches out his neck and really harasses anything with the temerity to invade his territory . We don't have a lot of either sparrows or starlings , just enough to be comfortable , but what we do have is an absolute swarm of jackdaws - pest numbers . We have a comfortable number of pheasants , wood pigeons , and grey doves , but very few magpies , and we used to be over-run with those . All in all , just about right -- but no swallows so far !
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 78 43.1%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 63 34.8%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.6%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 4 2.2%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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