The Boy Tom’s August ramblings

How are yu all a’gettin on t’gether?
A’time I am a’writin this (29th July) they recon thas a’goin t’git suffin hot on Friday. Up to 34c they recon.  I hev told the Missus that I am a’goin t’stay indoors cos I don’t like the heat.   We’r lucky cos our House is an olden with two foot thick solid walls so that stay cool while thas a heatin up outside.  Mind you I’ll ha’a make sure that all the plants in the garden are well watered to cope.   My tomatoes in the green house are growing well und the tomatoes have just started turnin red so we don’t want them a spoilin so I’ll ha’a meake sure that the doors und windows are open.   Another thing I du is to leave a pan o’water on the floor t’try und keep the humidity up.    One thing tomato plants don’t like is havin a lot o’water splashed all over them.
Them old combines hev bin a’goin for sum time.  I see the young master up at the Hall hev cut his Oil Seed Rape.    Them farmers who hev grown Winter Barley are knockin that down & the Winter Wheat won’t be long behind.   I see a photograph yesterday showin them cutting wheat near Thetford.
When I am cyclin up the footpath from Caudle Springs to the Main rood I see that they hev grown a rare lot of Broad Beans on the fields neaby.    I hev bin keepin an eye on um und they hev bin growin well but during the last couple weeks them beans are been overtaken by suffin thas a growin through them.   Thas a weed called Old Fat Hen.   I remember my dear old Mother a’talkin about it.    She were a Land Army Girl durin the Second World War warkin alongside me Father on the family farm in South Norfolk.    She recon she ha’a spend days a’pullin old fat hen outa fields o’Sugar Beet.  Du yu know some 14 year arter I were born my Dad were sending me inta a field o’beet t’pull some old fat hen out.  I ha’a walk acrors the crop pullin the plant up by the roots und puttin it into a paper fertiliser bag I were carryin.  When the fertiliser bag were full I ha’a leave it on the headland to be collected und, as far as I can remember cos thas ni on sixty one year ago, the bags und old fat hen were burnt.When they come t’cmbine them beans they und the fat hen will be dry so the modern combine harvester they use should be able to separate the beans from the fat hen seed.   The last thing any farmer will want to see is fat hen seed in his sample of beans. 
Talkin about combine harvesters I read that there are some new ones about now that’ll cut und thresh 100 tonnes an hour.   If you hev a combine like that you hev gotta hev sum great old trailers t’git that orf the fields und into the grain stores. When you think when combines fust come about you only ha’a have a little old 3 tonne trailer t’keep that a’goin.     Now they hev what they call “Chaser wagons that hold over 20 tonnes.  Then you hev got t’hev some gret old barns which will hold several thousand tonnes with some great old doors t’git the corn in and out. still thas progress for yu!
I’ll  tell you suffin else I see tuther day when I were a cyclin up the footpath,  I see some tyre tracks which mean’t somebody hed bin a’driven a car along there.  I followed them until they disappeared near the bridge thas about half way way along the footpath.   I din’t think n’more about it until the next day.   I see them tyre tracks were still there but near the bridge somebody hed a’bin busy.   Where them big warehouses are there are a lot o’cars und vans a’standin about.    I recon somebody might hev pinched one und driven it acrorse the field at the back o’the warehouses through the shallow ditch near the bridge und down the footpath to come onta the road at Caudle Springs.    Well that ain’t a’goin t’happen agin.   They hev dug the ditch out all the way round the field with a gret old machine und hev put a fence up un all.
Well them boys up at Carra Rood are going t’be playin in the Championship next year.  For Fathers Day one o’our Boys give me a Nowtv subscription cos he recon I could watch some of the City’s games.    Well boy I dint see them win once, I’ll tell yu suffin that hev bin good for watching the Cricket & Motor Racing.  How them batsmen hev time t’hit a cricket ball when thas a’cumin at them at 90 mph from 22yard away I never now.  When I were a’playin cricket, ni on 60 year ago, I remember batting against a fast bowler who were slingin the ball down at 40 mph und I thought that were plenty fast enough.
Thas time I stopped writing und got out into the garden und do a bit o’waterin t’give the plants a chance agin these high temperatures that are a’comin.
Fare ye well t’gether und du yu keep a’troshin.
The Boy Tom