Sunday 4 September 2016

The Blur of Summer and- oh!- a Surprise!

Well, hello there. It's been a few months hasn't it? 

Shall we skip the excuses- of which I have many, but none of real interest?

Shall we, lets!


 The later, hotter days of July bought about the final days of Uni. The tying up of loose ends, the double checking all the details, making sure we had everything completed and handed in- crotting the i's and dossing the t's, that sort of thing. I must say that it is an immense relief to be done with academic work, its not my party and the London commute was starting to wear extremely thin. I am not designed for that life, I am a slow goer of all things and the hustle and bustle just doesn't sit well with this floaty head of mine. However I would be fibbing if I didn't admit that I will miss a few select people from my course. You don't realise until you come out the other side how much you have grown and changed as a person and it was wonderful to recognise that in my fellow nurses. We have achieved so much, both as a group and an individual.

 The middle of August saw me start at my new place of work- which, because of rather strict confidentiality aspects I cannot disclose very much about, other than its nursing and I love it! 

But lets be honest.....

 July and August mean one thing in the farming world: Harvest.



 The days become dusty and dusky, they stretch out in front of you forever ruled by the changing of weather and the willingness of a tired and grumpy piece of machinery (and farmer!!) to cooperate. 


 The grass in the fields reaches to the sun and begins to yellow, it provides the perfect environment for all manner of wildlife and during the beginning of July I stumbled across a lady pheasant sheltering her precious eggs from my great galumphing farm boots. She gave me the evil eye and dared me to come closer- I promptly apologised and heading in the opposite direction, only to then land flat of my face falling over the sheep dog that had decided to tag along silently for my midday walk (much to my complete obliviousness). 


 I spent a few days bumping around on a rather uncomfortable seat in one of the tractors while Ash made hundreds of perfect rectangular bales of varying sizes in our grass fields and eventually in the oat fields after the combine had hunkered through, collecting the yield and storing it up ready to be emptied into the waiting grain trailers (of which I managed to dodge this year because of starting work... *silent whoop*).

 At the end of the season your left feeling dusty, tired, tanned and achy after stacking little bales in the barn and walking miles and miles to deliver vital cups of tea and cake to dusty (did I mention dust already? It's very dusty!) farmers stuck up the fields in their tractors and combines. 

(DUST!!! Dust everywhere!!!)

But after all that you are left with a feeling of utter satisfaction. I cannot describe how good it feels to watch the different stages a crop field goes through during the course of harvest to return to its original form. From the lush golden heads of Oats (or Wheat, or Barley) that sway in the wind, like the breeze enjoys running its many fingers through the crop to create wave like formations. To the great, hulking combine that slowly combs the field, swallowing the crop in neat lines and tossing out the left over straw in long hills of yellow. Then the tractor and baler comes through, again swallowing up the stem of the crop, smashing and squeezing and compressing until it bumps out the back of the baler in bale form. This description is far more eloquent than my explanation to children: "the machine swallows the straw and poos out little rectangles!". Then along comes the JCB to collect all the bales up onto a trailer to be taken back to the farm, when everybody and their dog are called upon to unload and stack them neatly in the barn for the coming year. At the end of this the field is left looking like a blond mans 5 o'clock shadow: slightly prickly but also neat and smooth. Now its in for abit of a wait, until early autumn when the tractors return with their cultivating equipment, to prepare the ground for next year. 

 You learn alot from this, about the yearly cycle and how everything in life is in fact very similar. Everything loops, nothing really has a beginning and end. Just a cycle that continues on its familiar path.



 So whats this surprise then?

 You may have already guessed it?



 Yup, I'm doing that really annoying thing people in their twenties do.

 Now, we're taking this as no big deal. Ash didn't get down on one knee, there wasn't a romantic night spent against a rustic backdrop, there were no tears of surprise or happiness. It was just a conversation..... does that disappoint you? 

 Thing is, neither me or Ash like to make a fuss about anything. We don't like attention, we don't like drama and we certainly will not conform to peoples expectations ;) 

We just decided one night to get married because it felt right, it felt natural and it was something we wanted. We've been together for a very long time, we've watched others go through the process as well wishing bystanders and celebrated the uniqueness of everybodies different ideas and beliefs. We have enjoyed being apart of peoples 'Big Day' and have loved playing apart in that to make their day as wonderful as they hoped it would be. 

 Now its our turn and we hope everyone will understand our uniqueness and want to celebrate and enjoy our significantly smaller 'Big Day'. Because of course, it's not going to be done the usual way- duh!!

 In fact if we're totally honest, its just a fun excuse to get everybody we love and appreciate together with music, fun, food, tents, BBQs and plenty of alcohol. I'm hoping to organise (God help me!) a bit of a festival themed fun day where we can both feel at home (because we will be) and relaxed because there's no 'I do's' on that day, theres no big lead up to a serious signing and exchanging of vows- that will come a little while later with a very small group of close family and a very low key exchanging of vows and signing of seriousness. 

Sound odd?

Good ;)