October 2007 Archives

Barely controlled panic.

That's my mood right now, as I frantically try to write the script for the video I've been asked to present (been lumbered with making!) from tonight's Farmers Weekly awards.

Yet more evidence that birds of require require additional protection, after another incident - this one on the Royal family's Sandringham Estate.

Prince Harry, even though not involved, has been interviewed by police about the incident.

The Disney film Ratatouille is doing the countryside a huge disservice. It's making rats popular.

The star of the animated movie is a loveable French rat with a passion for cooking. It's turning the rodent, certainly among kids, from loathed pest to popular pet.

I'm always up for going on the odd work-related jolly (hint, hint!). Sadly, there aren't as many of offer as there used to be.

When news reached me about this, though, I must admit my first reaction was: That sounds like a bit of a jolly!

Apparently the Lords take on the Commons every year in a clay shoot and the 2007 one recently happened at Squerryes Court in Kent.

According to the BASC, the event helps to demonstrate the benefits of safe and responsible shooting sports, and provides an informal forum for MPs and peers to discuss issues affecting shooting.

If you say so.

The Lords team ended up narrowly winning, if you're interested.

I told you dogs weren't to be trusted.

When they're not swanning around at fancy awards ceremonies, they're busy shooting people.

I'll try anything once, except oysters and Scottish Country Dancing, so seeing as some of the best blogs do this, I'd like to give it a go.

If you fancy appearing on Field Day as a 'guest blogger' then drop me a brief email, outlining who you are and the topic you'd like to write about. I'll then pick a few people to have a go. Obviously I'm most receptive to subjects relating to the countryside, farming and food.

Anyone can apply (anyone other than people whose first name is Matthew and whose surname is Naylor, that is!) I look forward to hearing from you.

And no, in case you're wondering, this isn't just a ruse to get me out of making a few blog posts (although as seasoned bloggers will know, an occasional break is quite a luxury) - it might just be a bit of variety!

Wasn't all that long ago I was blogging about mushrooms, so if it's a subject you're interested in, check out the National Trust's Waxcap Watch.

This is the fifth of our Saturday Recipes.

Lemon Curd Dumplings

Funny what you notice on labels once you start looking at them.

After the bull on the wine bottle, now it's cow pee bath foam.

Looks like one of our bushy-tailed friends got caught out here. Ha!

Told you I was going back to squirrels!

I like wine and I like the countryside so this ticks two boxes for me.

Rather neat, this bottle, wouldn't you say. A friend brought it when he came over for dinner last night and the label made us laugh.

I love the picture of the bull on the back with all the wine references - like 'well rounded', 'nice finish' and, pointing at a certain area of its anatomy, 'noble pedigree'.

I'm not the only one who isn't a massive fan of The Archers.

Just been reading a post on the lovely Little Brown Blog about a dog that goes crazy at the sound of the show's theme tune.

Milla left a comment saying she once had a dog that went loopy at the sound of Blue Peter. When I was a kid, we had a Border Collie that particularly liked the Match of the Day music.

Just wondered if anyone else has had experience of dogs that particularly like - or loathe - certain pieces of music?

You're right: I probably ought to get out more.

Talking about spreading love, if anything's going to spark a romantic encounter it would be this – the annual Oyster Feast.

This event is taking place today (it’s always the last Friday in October) at Colchester in Essex.

You've heard of the Oscars, you've heard of the BAFTAS, now it's the Fidos.

I've got a confession to make.

I don't feel entirely comfortable doing this, it feels slightly sacrilegious to say it - but I don't particularly like The Archers. There. I've said it.

I'm not a fan of radio drama full stop, in fact. Too much over-emphasising words and sounds. Too much melodrama. Too much ham, if you know what I mean.

I can't get away from pumpkins at the moment.

My other half's parents grow them on their farm in Leicestershire, so we brought back a car-full to give away (well, to sell actually). A pile of them has been filling our hall for the last few days!

... but after my attempts at making a film of the farmers who re-created the Full Monty for charity, I've been commandeered to make the video from the Farmers Weekly Awards in London next week.

So, watch this space. Meanwhile, anyone got a dinner jacket they can lend me please?

Birds of prey, still sadly the subject of horrific attacks, could soon receive a bit more protection thanks to a conference which has been happening in Scotland this week. Good news...

I'm not trying to stick my nose into your love life here - but if you're looking for romance, then you might be interested in what's going on in this curious-looking motorhome.

The front cover of this week's Country Life made me laugh.

This, then, is obviously what a "smaller" country house looks like. Yes, positively poky, I'd say!

My own des res has, in fact, an east wing (well, it's got a spare bedroom). It also has a Chinese room - so named, I should point out, not because of the style of decor but because it's where I once ate a takeaway from the Chopstick House takeaway.

After the outcry from Field Day readers last time I linked to a story in the Daily Mail, I feel obliged to warn you that the link I'm about to give you also goes to that paper.

I should say, however, that this story about the early arrival of swans heralding a cold winter is interesting. And, unlike most Daily Mail stories, it doesn't mention asylum seekers or cannabis.

Let it never be said that I neglect dogs in favour of cat coverage.

OK, I'm more of a cat person, but having seen pooches win hands down (should that be paws down?) in a recent "cats or dogs" poll, I figure the occasional dog story won't go amiss.

So here's a great picture I've been sent of a truly splendid woofer. It's a Leonberger.

Wow - how's that for a helpful response.

David Weekes has just emailed me two pictures of the bridge at Ashford-in-the-Water, after he saw the debate on the old photos.

We’ve had some great suggestions for what might have been going on in this picture since we published it on Field Day.

Some were distinctly tongue-in-cheek but we think, finally, we’ve got to the bottom of the mystery photo which I unearthed in an old cupboard in Farmers Weekly’s head office.

On the FWi forums, Darling came up with two ideas – the first sheep ever to try bungee jumping or one of the entrants preparing for the annual “Miss Wet and Woolly Competition”.

The Beast reckoned it shows some sort of sheep-based life-saving device – pre-Baywatch, of course! And Taff thought it looked like a scene involving Shaun the Sheep from Wallace and Gromit.

This is the fourth of our Saturday Recipes.

Obviously getting married on a tractor is a bit passe these days.

Recent newlyweds Caroline and Charlie Wellon left church on a forage harvester (machinery buffs will recognise it as a New Holland FR9050).

I've been working with three farming charities recently after they came up with a great idea.

They saw how some people in farming are in dire straits as a result of foot-and-mouth and bluetongue, while others are doing well because of the high grain prices. They decided it was time for an appeal: asking those who are prospering to give money to support those who aren't.

You'll have noticed the photofit of yours truly gawking out at you from the top of this blog. Sorry to subject you to this.

A designer friend of mine offered to have a look at the blog and that was one of the ideas he came up with. I did suggest we stick this photo of George Clooney there, but he was having none of it...

After unearthing a bit of info about Phil Vickery's farming pedigree, I've been asking one of my sports-mad mates about other stars with rural connections. Turns out there are quite a few.

The guy in the picture is John Jeffrey, a favourite of Scottish rugby fans and Kelso's most famous farmer.

John was known in his playing days as 'The Great White Shark' because of his predatory instincts and his shock of blond hair.

He's been here. On Field Day. Naylor.

He's popped up leaving a comment on the This Little Piggie post.

And he's presented me with a bit of a conundrum. We're locked in mortal combat - we're sworn blogging enemies - but when I read his Daily Mail comment I thought: That man's got a point.

I was conceived in a bath in Norfolk in September 1946.

I'm not talking about myself here - that's the first line of Clarissa Dickson Wright's autobiography, Spilling The Beans, which I finally got round to starting reading earlier.

When a book's got that that as an opener, it can't fail to be a great read I reckon...

Most people know him as captain of the England rugby team, but a less well-known fact is that Phil Vickery is farmer’s son from a traditional agricultural background.

The prop, who grew up on a family dairy farm in Cornwall, is still a passionate supporter of the countryside.

The man who’ll be facing South Africa in this weekend’s World Cup Final even reckons the discipline that farming gave him from an early age has helped his sports career.

Not very often you find yourself laughing at Radio 4’s Today programme. But that’s what I found myself doing this morning – laughing out loud, in fact, at a quarter to seven. The subject of this early morning merriment: hornets.

A new development, it seems, in our Australian cousins' ongoing battle with cane toads.

New Scientist is reporting the warty little devils (the toads, that is) have a weakness that is limiting their aggressive territorial behaviour: arthritis.

It would have certainly slowed this brute down.

Most of us already sensed this was happening, I guess, but this new research by The Sunday Telegraph highlights the dire state of rural bus and train services.

Which Hollywood A-lister has revealed he would have been a farmer if he hadn't ended up in acting?

Here's a clue: he recently played the part of a farmer in a massive hit film. Find out here.

I like fishing. It's infinitely more fun than, say, golf (which isn't saying much).

One thing I've never tried, though, is salmon fishing. My pockets aren't deep enough.

But there's a lot of legend and myth associated with this magnificent fish - and rumours spread like wildfire whenever there's talk of a new record-sized catch. Fair to say, the rumour-mill has been working overtime around Loch Ness this week.

It would have been a long way for one of them to have travelled - but, who knows, maybe the fish at the centre of all the excitement was one of the escapee salmon we were talking about just the other day!

Remember we mentioned the horror film about the sheep that turned nasty?

Well Field Day reader Caroline Stocks has been to see it.

It’s 20 years to the day since the Great Storm.

It makes me feel two things to remember this: sad and old.

No doubt this picture and story will further upset my blogging nemesis, Naylor, but all the more reason to feature it then.

I should point out that while the piglet concerned is undoubtedly cute, the place I most like to see a pig is, in fact, in a sausage!

Who says flower arranging is just for the ladies?

Jeff Barratt - a plumber by trade - won the Young Farmers national senior Floral Art Competition at Staffordshire County Showground at the weekend.

“I’ve had a lot of stick about of doing flower arranging, but I’ll give anything a go!” says 19-year Jeff, a member of Brandon and Wolston YFC and one of only two lads competing at the nationals. “I did it for the club,” he says.

It seems the spectre of health and safety concerns reaches everywhere - even, believe it or not, as far as today's conker contest.

Thankfully it looks as if common sense has prevailed this time.

Now I'm off to try some other equally dangerous pursuits no doubt also fraught with risk: like watching tv and walking the dog!

This is the third of our Saturday recipes.

Yorkshire Parkin

1 ½ lbs medium oatmeal
¾ lb flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2lbs treacle
½ lb butter and dripping
1 small teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
¼ pint milk

Farmer Frank, Farmers Weekly's agony uncle, has been at it again. His advice this month - which covers everything from hangover cures to small dogs - might make you smile.

A pattern is emerging here. Animals, rising up and striking back.

The sheep tuning nasty, the cows with guns and now, from Scotland, a real-life tale of thousands of chickens making a bid for freedom.

Like I say, it's definitely Friday. Back to more cutting-edge news soon, I promise!

After the horror film about sheep turning nasty and exacting their revenge on the human race, now I've been shown this amusing cartoon about cows with guns. It takes about five minutes to watch - but is oddly amusing.

It's definitely Friday!

Here's a question for you. What involves climbing around 300,000 feet, covering more than 600 miles, consuming 400 litres of water and eating about 150 chocolate bars?

Field Day readers have been making lots of suggestions as to why the sheep was being hurled into a river.

Some are a little tongue-in-cheek, but here's what we've got so far:

* They were being used as shark bait.
* It was a wedding festival (of two people involved in farming, not two sheep, I presume).
* It was the sheep equivalent of bungee jumping.
* It was a May Day celebration.
* Punters made bets on which one swims back to the riverbank the quickest.
* Thanks to Mopsa who writes the great Ramblings blog for the most helpful and credible-sounding explanation so far. She reckons they were washing the sheep prior to shearing as clean fleeces are obviously more desirable than dirty ones and pointed me to more information here.

Sausages are wonderful things.

They're not wonderful in the way that, say, the planet earth is, or human life is - but they're pretty damn fine nonetheless.

So fine, in fact, that someone has been inspired to write a poem about them. My friend David Cousins told me this yesterday when we were chatting about making them.

Now to the best of my knowledge, bangers are a subject woefully neglected by our great poets (although it's precisely the sort of thing you could imagine Betjeman writing on) so a poem like this fills a big hole in our poetry canon as far as I'm concerned!

Hope you enjoy it. The poet is A P Herbert.

I rarely get taken out for lunch these days. Off today, however, to the Guild of Agricultural Journalists' Harvest Lunch in London.

There's traditionally a lovely festival service at St Bride's Church in Fleet Street then a posh lunch somewhere swanky.

It was usually at Simpsons on the Strand and we always ate beef (usually so red it was still mooing), but this year it's at a hotel at Charing Cross.

In the old days - before I had cats and before I got hangovers - we used to then spend the afternoon in one of my favourite London pubs, The Coal Hole, but today it'll be two glasses of wine with the meal then on the train out of the smoke!

If anyone can throw any light on what's going on in these photos, I'd love to know.

I've just found them in a dusty cupboard. All I know is they were taken in 1974. Presumably it's some old-fashioned custom involving men throwing sheep on a rope into a river.

Quite what they hope to achieve - or what's in it for the poor sheep - I've absolutely no idea.

Farm diversifications come in all shapes and sizes. Bras were Sally Robinson's brainwave; in the case of Tina Rivett, it was socks.

News just in, though, of a family diversifying into husky trekking. Where?, you might well ask. Alaska, perhaps? Or Sweden? No, the North Yorks Moors!

First it was the World Worm Charming Championships, now it's the World Conker Championships.

This annual event is happening this Sunday at Aston in Northamptonshire. According to the website it's an event where "modern-day gladiators fight for glory".

I'm sure it's great fun, but I think that's overdoing it a bit chaps...

You don't see notes in magazines and newspapers as much as you used to, signed off "Ed".

I fear, though, that I'm approaching a "That's enough Squirrel stuff, Ed" note at this rate from the boss. Regulars will remember, among others, the zapped squirrel, the rampaging squirrels and the peer of the realm's squirrel masterplan.

But I can't resist mentioning this one - a story about family planning and the little critters!

And no, Naylor, don't be so cynical - the fact that it allowed me to put contraception in the headline is entirely irrelevant.

My friend Hannah Velten, who writes the Round The Water Trough blog, has had a book published called Cow.

I hope that Naylor chappie doesn't think this is another cynical excuse to get the word 'sex' in a headline (would I!) but this story about an amorous peacock made me laugh.

Ron, who lives in a stately home in Somerset (well, in the grounds of it, not the house itself - but you get the idea) has begun attacking bright blue cars in his territory. In his latest assault, he caused £4,000 worth of damage on a Lexus.

Ron's owner, Sir Benjamin Slade, said: "He doesn't seem to be bothered by other birds, but the peacock-blue cars just drive him wild. He suddenly becomes aggressive and can't control himself."

I’ve just been on a bit of a tour.

In the last few minutes I’ve been to Suffolk to watch the most stuck-in the-mud tractor I’ve ever seen (the quality of the video clip isn’t brilliant, but it’s worth listening to for the Suffolk accent alone!), as well as learning about elephants in London. I’ve even nipped across the pond to learn a little about agriculture in the US.

That’s the beauty of the internet and the blogosphere, isn’t it. All human – and animal – life is out there.

That said, it’s easy to get carried away. Sometimes, as I argued when I was guest blogging on Scott Pack's Me and My Big Mouth blog recently, we must beware the perils of too much blogging and social networking!

Enough web talk - as those of you who have been following my tustle with Matthew Naylor will remember, I’m back to the hunt for a waterskiing mole photo...

You can race anything these days.

After those crazy Dutch and their racing combines, now I learn of the British Lawn Mower Racing Grand Prix which happened over the weekend.

Lewis Hamilton, watch out...

You might remember my run-in with Mathew Naylor who blogs about farming in the Fens.

We’re mates - but he reckons my blog is full of naff animal pictures and I think his is full of dull potato statistics. As a result, we’ve decided to have a little contest.

The ground rules are simple. If he gains more readers in the next month than I do, then I can't publish a single animal picture on Field Day for a week. If, however, I get more new readers, he’ll publish any animal picture whatsoever I give him on The Longer View. Or, as I might start calling it, The Longer Spew.

This is the second of our Saturday recipes.

Pheasant in Cider

1 pheasant plucked and drawn
1 orange quartered
5 large cabbage leaves
4 rashes fatty bacon
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg
½ pint cider
3 bay leaves

Students at Hadlow, the rural skills centre in Kent, have been vying to get behind the wheel of the college's new tractor.

Machinery buffs will recognise it was a McCormick CX105 XtraShift. Apparently it was chosen because the model is representative of a modern general-purpose tractor used on farms up and down the country.

That's something I've learnt today!

You're probably wondering what on earth that headline is all about. Bear with me - all will become apparent.

First, I should say that I'm not a competitive person. I've never typically wanted to be the best or first in anything. The only way to go if you are, after all, is down. I'm like most Englishmen - "pretty good" is my natural ambition when it comes to most things.

A lot of rural post offices have been under the threat of closure for a while now, but there is bad news for many this week as the PO announces the first batch earmarked for closure.

If you're a fan of Shaun the Sheep, then here's a chance to see a short video of the man behind its creation, Nick Park.

He's talking about the new short Wallace and Gromit film, Trouble at Mill, which is expected to go out on tv at the end of next year.

Shaun, as his many fans will remember, appeared in Wallace and Gromit's A Close Shave film - but proved so popular he ended up with his own spin-off tv show.

My cats are under the knife right now.

Today is D-day. Or, rather, N-day. Neutering Day.

After the country guys doing a Full Monty strip for charity, and the tractor driver with only a flashing light to preserve his modesty (again, all in a good cause), now another calendar arrives featuring farmers getting their kit off for charity.

This one is more movie-related than agricultural – but it’s got sheep in it so I figure it qualifies.

Field Day reader Scarlett Hayler-King has got in touch to tell me about a new film called Black Sheep.

It’s a horror movie – apparently the little bleaters do lots of unpleasant and gory things to people (I guess having your relations eaten is bound to have psychological consequences).

It’s set in New Zealand and is about genetically modified sheep that turn into zombies and eat people!

Nice.

Ever wondered how far the average hen walks in its lifetime?

OK, so it’s not the sort of question that keeps most of us awake at night, but I can tell you the answer. 1460 miles.

The figure was calculated by the guys at Clarence Court, the free-range egg producer.

The experiment involved attaching a tiny counter to the hen’s leg and monitoring the results (guys, you’ve really got to get out more!)

I know there's not much to smile about in farming right now, what with foot-and-mouth and bluetongue disease, but sometimes it helps to laugh.

One of my favourite places in the country is Aldeburgh in Suffolk and one of the things I like most doing is eating.

I was disappointed, therefore, not to be able to make it to the recent Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival.

I thought 'blue shirts' were off Hi-de-Hi, but my tv-mad friends tell me they were, in fact, yellow jackets who appeared on the comedy show (inspired by the red coats at Butlins).

Actually, blue shirts are who'll be on hand to show visitors round at the Harper Adams Open Day on Sunday October 14.

Farmers Jamie Wood and Daniel Robinson are teaming up with friend Stuart-Lee Archer to ski to the North Pole.

After I published photos of peculiar roadsigns, Field Day reader Terry Parker has sent me this one he snapped at the weekend in Dornoch in Scotland.

All needs catered for!

Whatever your view on the Royal family, you can't deny that Prince Charles feels strongly about agriculture.

Cash-strapped farmers facing foot-and-mouth-related difficulties will now benefit to the tune of more than £0.5m, thanks to an initiative by the Prince of Wales.

It comes just a few weeks after he launched the Year of Food and Farming.

Read all the latest foot-and-mouth and bluetongue disease news.

Another of my bugbears - how absolutely everything has got its own 'week' these days. It's not just squirrels, even - you might remember - watercress.

This one made me laugh, though. National Be Nice to Nettles Week.

No, never!

We've been having a bit of a squirrel-fest here on Field Day.

After the disapproval (and cheers!) which were prompted by the electrocuted squirrel photo, we now learn it's currently Red Squirrel Week.

While I'm no fan of the greys, I like the reds. Like a lot of our native species, they need all the help they can get.