Ashley D. baling their straw

Our wonderful friends Pip and Mary were coming up this afternoon from Bristol to stay with us for twenty-four hours. In the morning I drove up to the farm shop near Bisley to stock up on some vegetables and was served by Keith  with whom I had a long chat.  He looks after their honey business and all the bees and hives they have scattered across the county (I blipped a queen bee in one of his hives here.  There is also a link there to my Flickr gallery showing other pictures of Keith working with the bees.)  But at this time of the year he joins his brother in getting in all the cereal crops.  Keith tipped me off that Ashley was out in the fields (they had both been working at it until 11pm the night before!) baling the straw in one of their fields. So I drove around to their Dutch barn and spotted Ashley, grabbed my camera and tried to keep up with the movement of the machinery.  I am trying to keep a record for both them and myself of scenes from farm life throughout the year and this is a suitably iconic view.

Once Pip and Mary had arrived we drove as planned up to Painswick Beacon where we'd arranged to meet John W. walking Theo, his delightful Bedlington dog.  After being rather windblown as we looked out over the Severn Vale and across to Wales, we went back to John's house to have tea with his wife Liz and to view John's amazing 3D photos which Pip and Mary had heard much about. 

Once we got home as dusk fell, a delightful meal followed with rather more wine and whisky than I'm used to these days. A delightful day.

Woodpeckers has blipped a fine panorama from the top of Painswick Beacon