I'm kicking myself for being so smug a couple of weeks ago. I really should know better. Back then I boasted about harvest progress and said we had combined all that was fit. I was relaxed about the two thirds of our wheat and all of our spring beans still to be gathered.
Well, I'm not so relaxed now. Not a wheel has turned on this farm for two weeks and the last few days have been more like November than August. Wheats that were bright and standing now look grey and are leaning. Beans that had green stalks two weeks ago are now black and ready to combine.
Meanwhile I have been tipping out inches of rain from my measuring pot each morning and the wind last night must have shelled out some of the wheat that is now rotten ripe.
The forecast is a bit better for the weekend but at present rain is driving against the office window. I heard today that wheat is up to £150/t for November. But high prices aren't much good if the stuff is still out on the field.