Wheat

Wheat for as far as the eye can see.

The wheat harvest is in full swing here. For the past few days the background noise at our house, somewhere between a hum and a roar, has been combine harvesters all around Preuilly. They start at a quite civilised hour around 9am, but work into the night until midnight. The weather has been fine for a week, and the farmers and contract harvesters are working like fury while it lasts, so that the wheat is in the best possible condition and they can get the best price. All day long the dust they create hangs in clouds over the fields they are working in, and the sunset is red tinged. Drive anywhere and you will meet a tractor towing a huge trailer full of grain, heading towards the co-operative silo at the old railway station. A trailer load of grain is extremely heavy, so if you get stuck behind one, especially going up a hill, progress is slow. They drive right through town to get to the silo - down the main street, across the bridge. Sometimes the tractor drivers look unfeasibly young - teenagers on school holidays, helping out with the harvest (which is why school holidays are when they are).

This morning at 5am there was a thunderstorm and some good rain. Good, that is, for me and my vegetable garden, but I imagine not so good for any wheat farmer who hasn't quite got his crop in yet.

Susan