Monday, 30 July 2012

23rd July Haymaking at Rockfield




make hay while the sun shines... a roll in the hay... looking for a needle in a haystack...hay fever


So many references to this ancient practice are rife in the English language. It remains a vital part of agricultural life, supplying livestock with nutrition during the winter months - and yet, so limited by the weather that it can be a tricky job to manage.
Haymaking has been done for 6,000 years and timing is critical, taking roughly 5 days from cutting to baling. The trick is to ensure that the grass is dried completely in this time – hence the adage “Make hay while the sun shines”. The grass should be turned over to release the moisture to ensure the best hay and in modern times hay bobs have been used for this purpose. One can well imagine what a project doing hay was on the days of the scythe, hand cutting and hand turning would have been an extremely intensive process!

Nowadays, machinery makes the job of making hay far easier – but there’s still no substitute for the natural process of drying in the sun. A process that apparently was better back in the days of the wild flower meadows. Agricultural research suggests that flower meadows with a variety of flora and grass dries down to make on average 40% more dry forage than just grass – Something lost in today’s landscape with a more limited variety of grassland and sedge.
Most cutting is done in June, although this year it’s been late and the ubiquitous hay wagons now on the roads are a result of farmers making the most of the recent dry spell following the wettest June on record. Sometimes, the cutting takes places during the main pollen season, hence the term “Hay Fever”, although most cutting is done towards the end of the summer season when the weather is guaranteed to remain dry for those precious  5 – 7 days.

Some friends of mine, based in Rockfield, on the outskirts of Monmouth invited me – with camera- to shoot them while this years’ crop was cut and baled. Naturally I jumped at the chance and enjoyed witnessing this ancient practice – with its modern twist… and even got to drive a tractor myself for the first time!!

You may wonder why I wore wellies in the dry conditions, but believe me nothing cuts like cut grass, so the wellingtons gave excellent protection against the dried blades! For all the machinery, it’s still backbreaking work humping those bales of hay. Your typical bale will weigh around 20kilos – and as you’ll see from the images, need to be lifted onto a moving target sometimes a good 6 feet overhead.




I’m not entirely sure whether being on the back of the trailer is the easier job, either! Having had a brief stint on the back of the trailer I can only explain the process of receiving the bales as moving, 3D, Tetris; it requires agility, method, brute strength and a sense of humour!!



Small wonder the fellas took Stella breaks!!! I can’t fathom out where the term “a roll in the hay” came from; after working those fields all day I can’t imagine anyone having the energy!!



Monday, 2 July 2012

How do I feel at posting my first blog? Excited? Thrilled? Scared? All three, but most of all I feel Gratitude to Ellie, the lady who inspired me to finally take this leap into cyberspace and formalise the words and pictures in my mind into something readable, digestable and hopefully, interesting!


So here, in this first entry are a few images and thoughts from a foray at a place of old magic...St Illtyd's Church, Llanhilleth. 
It always feels good these days to return to the place that I came from and St Illtyd's has a magnetism to it; it drew Santa Heledd back in the 7th Century if legend is to be believed, and later Cistercian Monks, although entrepreneurial in spirit, they delved into anything they could get their hands on! 


The surrounding  earthworks, not as well investigated as the church, suggest Norman or even Roman activity here and with a small amount of imagination it's not difficult to conceive that earlier peoples knew a good spot when they saw it.
I visited two years ago on a mild, July evening and was captivated by the light pouring down through the abundant Oxeye Daises.


 I returned this evening, hoping to improve on my previous photographic attempts. The conditions were quite different - results of which are below...








Although I didn't fulfil my objective - I was met in the graveyard by a gracious and knowledgeable soul who showed me around the church, told me some of its history, recounting her own ideas about some of it. She was a fascinating person and it was easy to see how she in her way was drawn to the Old Church. 


I discovered that we love foraging around, both love natural surroundings and photography and she told me about how she began blogging to share her experiences and her life with her father in Cambridgeshire. Her generosity of spirit and her openness inspired me to start up this blog and so it is to Ellie that I dedicate this first blog. Thank you!