Will’s World: Spring tour with some Springsteen thrown in

What is it they say? Leave the farm once a week, the county once a month, and the country once a year.

I’m not sure it fits particularly well with modern farming and family life, but let’s go with it anyway, because I’ve been on my travels lately, leaving the farm to visit several different counties, as well as a few different hot and exotic countries.

Well, England and Scotland, anyway.

See also: Contractor Comment: Staffing headaches as busy season sets in

It started back at Easter when we braved the M5 on a bank holiday weekend, like the intrepid travellers we are, to visit friends in Dorset.

We walked along the Jurassic Coast, collected pebbles on the beach, and visited the most picture-perfect of English country pubs for cold drinks afterwards.

I sometimes wonder how anyone down there gets any work done. I think if I was a resident I’d regularly find myself just standing there, struck dumb by the gorgeous views.

Born to run

Then, after a quick jaunt to Manchester with the present Mrs Evans and the youngest of our numerous daughters to see my beloved Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in concert (incredible, as always), it was off to the Scottish borders for our annual old Harper Adams friends and family get-together.

I’ve written about this weekend before and how much the people involved mean to me.

I won’t bore you with it again, but suffice it to say that a good time was had by all, many laughs were had, and more lifelong memories were made together.

If dancing around a fire with your nearest and dearest to a live guitarist playing absolute bangers well into the night isn’t living, then I don’t know what is.

By now you’ll be thinking I never do any work, but next it was off to the north Norfolk countryside for the most beautiful and best of weddings, with the most beautiful and best of people.

Is there anything better than a country wedding in the sunshine? Everyone’s happy, the atmosphere is celebratory, and for an all-too-brief time, everything’s as it should be with the world.

Add in some sensationally good local food and drink, more brilliant live music, and some great conversation with friends, and we had all the makings of a perfect day.

The present Mrs Evans and I even managed a lovely breakfast on the coast the next morning, looking out over the North Sea as we ate our eggs benedict on sourdough toast and drank our cappuccinos (fancy, aren’t we?).

We enjoyed a rare tranquil hour just taking in the stunning scenery together, before heading off on the long journey back to North Wales and the everyday reality of a busy farming and family life.

Glory days

The common thread here is good food, the spectacular diversity of the British countryside, and community.

I don’t often get time to think about these things, let alone stop and appreciate them, but driving round Britain and being in such a variety of different places during the spring months is such a powerfully visual reminder of the impact that we as farmers have on so many people’s lives.

We all know the job’s tough at the present time, and I won’t be the only one who’s been questioning mine and my family’s future in this industry.

But standing on top of a hill near Duns, gazing out toward the distant Cheviots and seeing the sheer beauty and scale of the landscape that lay below me made me feel extremely proud of how we contribute to society as farming families.

Anyway, harvest’s coming, so once again I’ll be grounded for the foreseeable.