Category Archives: Weather

Storm Clouds Gathering!

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Yesterday evening as we were harvesting beans, storm clouds were gathering on the horizon in an attempt to halt our progress. We knew we had been so lucky with the weather this harvest and thought our luck would not hold yet again. So we awaited the cloud’s wrath…

With an almost Gallic shrug of the shoulders,
we shouted “Show us your worst!”
and continued harvesting beans,
awaiting an inevitable cloud-burst!
When it came it was quite pathetic,
a dampening outside the grain store,
hardly a drop down the field,
we had been expecting much more!
So onward we continued to combine,
until we were ready to go home,
the storm had gone away round us,
for all we cared down to Rome!

…then just as we were standing in the shed having a post-harvest beer (to wash the dust down, you understand!) the heavens opened! With such luck I should have chosen lottery numbers!

© Baldock Bard 2017
For more from the Baldock Bard click on ‘Home’ above

Facebook: Baldock Bard
Twitter: @baldockbard
E-mail: simon.holtom@btconnect.com

The Baldock ‘Boutique’ Boot Sale
STILL HERE AFTER 25 YEARS!
It is the friendliest bargain bonanza anywhere!
Feed your hungry sat-nav with SG7 6RD

2017 Season
EVERY SATURDAY MORNING!
until mid-October
With more FREE parking and a field full of bargains!
www.u-boot.co.uk

 

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The Camouflaged Bales!

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Yesterday I drove across the fields to see if the contractors had completed baling the straw. When I came across some oat bales and snapped one with my phone, I was surprised how well they blended into the background. Then I realised ! was just having a ‘durrrr’ moment and perhaps it was time to switch the brain back on…

Hiding in the field,
like a giant’s cereal biscuit,
could you manage one for breakfast?
Would you dare risk it?
They’re off to the power station,
to make electricity,
pulses down some wires,
to light a distant city!
When they come to collect,
I hope they find them all,
or they’ll trick some unwary walker,
and misfortune will befall!

Many apologies for the poor and obscure rhyming couplets this morning, I’m blaming it on the weather! Have a great day and watch out for those camouflaged bales, maybe things will improve when I have my new glasses!

© Baldock Bard 2017
For more from the Baldock Bard click on ‘Home’ above

Facebook: Baldock Bard
Twitter: @baldockbard
E-mail: simon.holtom@btconnect.com

The Baldock ‘Boutique’ Boot Sale
STILL HERE AFTER 25 YEARS!
It is the friendliest bargain bonanza anywhere!
Feed your hungry sat-nav with SG7 6RD

2017 Season
EVERY SATURDAY MORNING!
until mid-October
With more FREE parking and a field full of bargains!
www.u-boot.co.uk

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The Last Oats!

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After a delay in harvest of four rain-soaked days, we finally managed to get back to the field and combine the last of the oats. This mornings picture shows the moment the drone captured the topping-up of the last trailer-load from the combine yesterday afternoon. Now all we have left to harvest is the beans which aren’t ready yet…

The last of the oats are in the bin,
my ‘white-strawed’ harvest is now in.
All that is left 86 acres of beans,
(not the sort found in High-School canteens!).
Up to the last, luck was here,
clouds always present during harvest this year.
I wish other farmers sunshine not showers,
so their wives can see smiles, not endless glowers!

I hope you all have a warm sunny weekend!

© Baldock Bard 2017
For more from the Baldock Bard click on ‘Home’ above

Facebook: Baldock Bard
Twitter: @baldockbard
E-mail: simon.holtom@btconnect.com

The Baldock ‘Boutique’ Boot Sale
STILL HERE AFTER 25 YEARS!
It is the friendliest bargain bonanza anywhere!
Feed your hungry sat-nav with SG7 6RD

2017 Season
EVERY SATURDAY MORNING!
until mid-October
With more FREE parking and a field full of bargains!
www.u-boot.co.uk

 

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Pondering the Precipitation!

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When I opened the curtains this morning something was wrong. It was then that I realised it was August 10th and it wasn’t raining! As soon as I was dressed I went out to the rain gauge. The result was greater than I’ve ever seen before, an amount usually found in parts of Wales, the West Country and Scotland. The lawn has grown so much I could crop it for silage and a new lake has shown up my laziness in not clearing a blocked drain…

An inch-and-a-quarter of rain has fallen,
according to my rain gauge,
a new record precipitation,
for this climate-change age!
The ducks and geese are ecstatic,
they can’t believe their luck,
as for the combine in the field,
I think it may be stuck!
Maybe we’ll continue harvest soon!

© Baldock Bard 2017
For more from the Baldock Bard click on ‘Home’ above

Facebook: Baldock Bard
Twitter: @baldockbard
E-mail: simon.holtom@btconnect.com

The Baldock ‘Boutique’ Boot Sale
STILL HERE AFTER 25 YEARS!
It is the friendliest bargain bonanza anywhere!
Feed your hungry sat-nav with SG7 6RD

2017 Season
EVERY SATURDAY MORNING!
until mid-October
With more FREE parking and a field full of bargains!
www.u-boot.co.uk

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Raining Stopped Play!

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The Combine-driver’s dog wonders when she’ll be back in her dry cab!

It’s August 9th and it has rained for two days on-and-off now. Farmers are kicking their heels and wandering around the house getting on the nerves of their nearest and dearest. Driving anywhere seems to take them past the field where the rain stopped play, however unlike a cricket test match, there are no covers over the playing surface…

It’s been raining cats and dogs,
pouring from the sky,
farmers looking up to the clouds,
shake their fists and wonder why
it’s raining so much in August,
when harvest is early today,
“August is a wet month”
Grandfather used to say!
you can blame it on Global Warming,
or on the round full moon,
whatever is to blame,
I hope summer returns and soon!

Meanwhile across Southern Europe the ovens of Hell are at full steam, There’s nowt so strange as weather!

© Baldock Bard 2017
For more from the Baldock Bard click on ‘Home’ above

Facebook: Baldock Bard
Twitter: @baldockbard
E-mail: simon.holtom@btconnect.com

The Baldock ‘Boutique’ Boot Sale
STILL HERE AFTER 25 YEARS!
It is the friendliest bargain bonanza anywhere!
Feed your hungry sat-nav with SG7 6RD

2017 Season
EVERY SATURDAY MORNING!
until mid-October
With more FREE parking and a field full of bargains!
www.u-boot.co.uk

 

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The Lucky Farmer!

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Yesterday it rained on my parade! We were on the home straight of our harvest and had just about 20 acres of oats to finish when the heavens opened (there are also 80 acres of beans which aren’t yet ready to harvest). I was, as the media would have said ‘visibly upset!’ However when I considered how much wheat is left on other farms, I put my self-pity back in the drawer and felt sorry for others…

On the floor in the shed,
a heap of wheat not yet bread!
Outside the fields are stubble now,
awaiting patiently the tractor and plough!
Twenty acres of oats still wait,
for a return of summer – another date!
The happiest in the rain is a mallard duck,
and this old farmer who can’t believe his luck!

Picture taken with a Mavic Pro drone inside the shed, perilously close to the roof, but I managed not to crash!

© Baldock Bard 2017
For more from the Baldock Bard click on ‘Home’ above

Facebook: Baldock Bard
Twitter: @baldockbard
E-mail: simon.holtom@btconnect.com

The Baldock ‘Boutique’ Boot Sale
STILL HERE AFTER 25 YEARS!
It is the friendliest bargain bonanza anywhere!
Feed your hungry sat-nav with SG7 6RD

2017 Season
EVERY SATURDAY MORNING!
until mid-October
With more FREE parking and a field full of bargains!
www.u-boot.co.uk

 

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God’s Perfect Harvest View!

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This has been a strange harvest, I have ridden my luck almost every day in one way or another and unusually come out the other side smelling of roses! We have had the strangest of weather, one day it rained on one side of the farm and not the other and local farmers have been stopped while we continued. Yesterday I had fine minutes to spare and put up the drone…

From my drone the fields look like corduroy,
the massive combine a mere toy,
the tractor and trailer minuscule,
everything looks peaceful as a rule.
From up here on high the dust isn’t seen,
a perfect rural idyll scene,
so today I’d like to share with you,
God’s own perfect harvest view!

Have a great Monday wherever you are and whatever you’re doing!

© Baldock Bard 2017
For more from the Baldock Bard click on ‘Home’ above

Facebook: Baldock Bard
Twitter: @baldockbard
E-mail: simon.holtom@btconnect.com

The Baldock ‘Boutique’ Boot Sale
STILL HERE AFTER 25 YEARS!
It is the friendliest bargain bonanza anywhere!
Feed your hungry sat-nav with SG7 6RD

2017 Season
EVERY SATURDAY MORNING!
until mid-October
With more FREE parking and a field full of bargains!
www.u-boot.co.uk

 

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The Cancellation

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When you organise an outdoor event of any kind, from a family barbecue in the garden to a large show or even a car boot sale, the most difficult decision is ‘When to Cancel’. This morning I took the unusual step of cancelling our weekly boot sale because at the time it was raining hard and the forecast was terrible. The decision has to be boldly taken, however I shall be judged in hindsight. If there is rain of biblical proportions I shall be judged as ‘brave’. If the torrents, thunder and lightening fail to materialise I shall simply be called a wimp…

The forecast was terrible,
in Baldock Noah started building an ark,
he looked around for animals,
even thought it was still dark!
He came across a sign,
at the local car boot sale,
‘This sale has been cancelled,
due to forecasted rain and hail!’
He tutted rather loudly,
with expletives he didn’t skimp,
“Won’t bother with the ark,
this farmer is such a wimp!”

As I write, the sky is clearing and I think the decision I made while it was still dark may have been of the wimpish kind!

© Baldock Bard 2017
For more from the Baldock Bard click on ‘Home’ above

Facebook: Baldock Bard
Twitter: @baldockbard
E-mail: simon.holtom@btconnect.com

The Baldock ‘Boutique’ Boot Sale
STILL HERE AFTER 25 YEARS!
It is the friendliest bargain bonanza anywhere!
Feed your hungry sat-nav with SG7 6RD

2017 Season
EVERY SATURDAY MORNING!
until mid-October
With more FREE parking and a field full of bargains!
www.u-boot.co.uk

 

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Spanner Before Hammer!

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Sometimes when things go wrong I find I have just enough knowledge to fix a problem. There are also times when I have not enough knowledge to be useful but enough to be dangerous! This week has been a case in point. When we started the grain elevator in the store (a series of cups on a long belt that lifts the grain vertically to a conveyor that feeds the bins) there was something wrong. The belts were pulling to one side. Unfortunately I decided I could fix it…

Up in the roof of the grain store,
a job I’d never attempted before,
the belts of the elevator weren’t running straight,
a scrunching noise as on the side they scrape,
Not much time to effect a repair,
harvest delayed by rain to be fair,
a bearing to replace – ‘a piece of cake!’
that is when basic errors you make.
So far it has taken quite a few hours,
a simple repair beyond my weak powers,
I should learn to leave things as they are,
not hammer, before spanner, before the crowbar!

There is no fool like an old fool, I will have to admit defeat and call in someone who knows!

© Baldock Bard 2017
For more from the Baldock Bard click on ‘Home’ above

Facebook: Baldock Bard
Twitter: @baldockbard
E-mail: simon.holtom@btconnect.com

The Baldock ‘Boutique’ Boot Sale
STILL HERE AFTER 25 YEARS!
It is the friendliest bargain bonanza anywhere!
Feed your hungry sat-nav with SG7 6RD

2017 Season
EVERY SATURDAY MORNING!
until mid-October
With more FREE parking and a field full of bargains!
www.u-boot.co.uk

 

Share

The Farmer and his Drone!

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Our luck with the weather has run out! Harvest is now at a stop thanks to a very heavy downpour yesterday afternoon. However before it rained I managed to get my drone out for ten minutes and captured harvest from a different angle…

A birds-eye view is not the same,
altogether a different game,
the drone soars up into the sky,
sends back pictures from its ‘Magic Eye!’
Harvest time is all rush and go,
no time for playing with my Mavic Pro,
so every minute others are saying,
“There’s the farmer, look he’s playing!”

…and I don’t care because at a time of stress – it’s such fun!

© Baldock Bard 2017
For more from the Baldock Bard click on ‘Home’ above

Facebook: Baldock Bard
Twitter: @baldockbard
E-mail: simon.holtom@btconnect.com

The Baldock ‘Boutique’ Boot Sale
STILL HERE AFTER 25 YEARS!
It is the friendliest bargain bonanza anywhere!
Feed your hungry sat-nav with SG7 6RD

2017 Season
EVERY SATURDAY MORNING!
until mid-October
With more FREE parking and a field full of bargains!
www.u-boot.co.uk

 

Share