Br. Matthew Mary, F.SS.R. takes charge of the hay-making this year. The grass is first cut and then must be turned regularly until it is dry and can be bailed. We have had some perfect weather here in Orkney, but the Angels are helping us to grow in patience by introducing some rain. Please pray to the Holy Angels, that they might obtain good weather from Our Lord...just till the hay's in! Below are some photos of the process so far:
Cutting the grass.
Then turning it.
Cutting the grass.
Then turning it.
I always think of the pictures in the Duc of Berry's Tres Riches Heures of the (rather well dressed) peasant women in the fields out turning the drying grass with their long wooden rakes. The fields between my home in Santa Marinella and Rome where I work, have been a kind of pageant of agriculture as I go back and forth on the train every day. The fields in Lazio seem to get at least two or three crops of vegetables a year, with the second ploughing just having been finished. The big round hay bales have been sitting in the fields awaiting pick up for some time. In early April all was green green green with grass and flourishing fields of Carcioffi (artichokes). Then one day, the mowers came out and suddenly there wasn't a carcioffi to be found in any Roman shop or restaurant. I'm looking forward to the second crop.
ReplyDeleteI think I might be the only person I know who watches the local agriculture the way some people watch television. It's diverting to know what's going on out there in what I like to think of as the 'real world' of the farmers. And there is something deeply comforting about seeing it all going on. If the farmers are still out there ploughing, planting and harvesting, the world' can't be in that bad shape. Not yet, at least.