The middle of November already! It seems like only yesterday that it was spring, but now activity seems finally to be slowing down.

Having said that, there seems to be acres and acres of ploughing to do before Christmas but the lads are still due holidays and paternity leave.

Paternity leave? Yes, I know I sound ancient, but there was no such thing when our bairns were born – it was a relief to get out of the house to avoid smelly nappies and wailing.

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To give Steve and Francas their due, though, they have worked very hard in the past few months. We certainly appreciate their efforts – and what an effort it has been.

We finally got the beans harvested. The quantity that came off the fields surprised us, even if latterly they were pushing 25% moisture.

I am not quite as stubborn as one of my friends, who used a mobile drier and discovered that was a very bad idea.

We get our crop dried at a near neighbour using his on-floor system, saving a lot of heartache that comes when elevators and conveyors bung up with something that has the consistency of chewing gum.

I hear that there are still a few acres of beans to cut in the vicinity as well as a field of linseed.

I am looking outside at the moment and it is raining hard. Poor chap, patience is something not many of us are blessed with.

We have recently had to say farewell to a dear old friend – a friend not just of our family, but of the wider community.

Archie Stewart was a wonderful man who many in this area will remember – not just as an enterprising farmer, but as a man who played rugby, skied, flew a hang glider, curled, and was a dab hand at bridge – not forgetting that he also cycled and rowed well into his eighties, and did so with almost manic enthusiasm.

As a young child I remember him coming to the house and winding me up into a frenzied excitement as he would pick me up and toss me around like a rugby ball. He was always so full of life.

He is an enormous loss to all who knew him.

Neil Thomson farms 607ha in partnership with his father and brother at Caverton Mill, Kelso, on the Scottish Borders, growing combinable crops and brassicas. Some of the mainly medium loam is let for potatoes, and the farm also has cattle and sheep.