How are yu all a’gettin on t’gether? thas been a rum year . Old Mother Nature seem t’hev got harself all in a muckwash. Here we are in the middle uf November und the roses ha still got buds on und theres a lot o’leaves still a hangin on the trees . I see a bee a flyin about last week… their normally tucked up in their hive a’keepin the awaitin for next spring. Still as I hev said afor Mother Nature hev away o’gettin things right….so we could still hev a hard winter. As I recollect the autumn of 1962 wernt to bad until we got t’between Christmas und the New Year und then the land froz up und we did’t du any land wark until March/April time.
Since I last hed a word along w’yu the Missus und I hev been over the water agin w’our caravan. We went und hed a look at Austria und Bavaria. We had a go at drivin along them German Motorways. There wernt any speed limit on sum o’the ones we driv along. My heart they don’t half crowd their old cars along. I were a’takin it nice und steady cos we were a’pullin the caravan behind when sum fella cum past us a’drivin a gret old Mercedes with a caravan behind. My heart he were a’goin und the caravan were a bobbin about behind the car. I say t’the Missus “ I bet he don’t hev t’buy new tyre for his caravan very orften cos their only a’touchin the rood every half mile or so”.
I hev told yu afor about the Missus a’doin har family tree. When we were a cummin back from Austria we stopped for a few days near the Somme so we could go und find sum names she hed found on har family tree. Fust we went to the Thiepval Memorial. Thas a gret old memorial with the names o’sum Seventy Two Thousand solders carved on it who hev no known grave. We found the names the Missus were alookin for und then we drawed up the road t’a cemetery where we found the grave of har Great Uncle. The Missus recon that she may be the fust member of har family t’visit has grave. That meake yu think when yu are a drivin about that area o’France cos yu cum acroos memorials und grave yards every mile or so. They arn’t just for British solders cos most o’the Commonwealth Countries sent solders t’fight un all.
I know none on us recon we are a’gettin older. But I were a’thinkin about that tuther day when I were a’warkin in the garden . I were a barrowin compost around the garden und that take me longer than that did a few year a’go. I don’t move su quick und I notice that I don’t fill the old barra as full as I used to. A few year ago afor I retired from the place where I warked part o’my job were t’look arter a flock o’sheep. The head lady o’the establishment cum t’see me one day und asked me if I hed any problems a’lookin arter the sheep. I told har no but I hed noticed one thing, “ at every lambin time when I wanted t’catch an old ewe they seemed t’be runnin a bit quicker” The head lady dint say anything…she just gi me a funny old look,…… that were a bit like the one the Missus gi me sum times.
There a’gettin them old sugar beet out and away t’the factory. They arnt long a’gettin the field tunned over und a drillin the next crop. Years ago that used t’be done a bit slower, for one thing the harvesters wernt s’big und most farmers hev sum cattle t’feed the sugar beet tops to. T’day the harvesters just flail um orf but when the tops were saved the harvesters left them in rows acroos the fields. Yu ha’a let them wilt a bit cos if yu fed um to green that used t’upset the old cows stomachs.(M’Mother allus reconned she knew when their started feedin the cows beet tops cos she could taste it in the milk!) Arter the tops had wilted then yu went inta the field with a tractor und trailer und hulled the tops onta the cart. That were hard work on a Friday yu ha’a load up enough tops t’feed t’the cattle on Saturday und Sunday.
As I ride about I see sum farmers hev sheep grazin orf the beet tops but there arnt as meny of them as there used t’be.
I were a’readin in the peaper tuther day that there wont be s’many beet grown in the next year or two. They recon there’s to much sugar in storage in Europe and the company who buy the beet orf the farmers arnt a goin t’pay them s’much . That seem a rummin t’me that there are folk in the world a goin short o’food und yet that seem as it nobody hev thought o’gettin sum o’this sugar t’them.
Less hope them boys up at Carra Rood meake a New Years resolution t’play better football in 2015 cos if they don’t they wont be playin with the big boys next season und the “Tractor Boys” (Ipswich) might finish above um in the league.
As this is the last time I will be havin a wud along wth yu in 2014 the Missus joins me in wishing yu all the best for Christmas und the New Year.
Fare ye well t’gether und remember for 2015… Du yu keep a’troshin.