Here's looking at Yow...

Sorry. Couldn't resist!

Horton Show today. And a grand day it was too. I think it's things like these shows that make it what it is round here. Or perhaps it is because of the proper communities we still have that things like this happen... Whichever way round it is, long may it continue.

In the South the villages have changed so much, they're not centred around farming the way they once were. So many are little more than dormitories. Expensive dormitories. But then those farms do not employ the people of the villages the way they once did. Thousands of acres are farmed by just a handful of men. Or less. The landscape here in the North does not lend itself to mass arable production. It will always be more labour intensive to farm it, no matter how many quadbikes there are. It is good to see how many children are involved with the sheep too, I hope at least some of them love it enough to stick with it despite the toughness of what lies ahead of them if they do. Because what we think of as the countryside depends on them.