Hay, good looking
Country Life UK|June 28, 2023
Sweating under the heat of the June sun, John LewisStempel helps his former neighbour Ian–with the aid of a Massey 135–to gather in hay bales before the rain falls
John Lewis-Stempel
Hay, good looking

I CAME down a back lane from Leominster. On the downhill, where the car picked up speed, the lane, lined with white cow parsley, unfurled, as if blossoming itself. I dangled a hand out of the car window, intending to tattoo on the door Supergrass’s Alright, which was loud on the radio; and then caught the smell of incoming rain on the evening air. And that tension in the air that comes before rain, as the natural world, the flowers and the animals, gird themselves. Looking across to the west, I saw that the long wall of the Black Mountains had assumed the ominous dark hue that prefigures downpour. The instinct to hurry to my destination was strong, but coming lumbering up the hill there was a travelling castle of hay bales, so I pulled over into a passing place and waited.

Eventually, the Massey Ferguson 135 and its trailer, loaded to the sky, reached me. (Making hay always gives the farm vintage tractor its moment to star; the Massey must have been 50 years, not out.) The driver gave me the country greeting, a peasant’s economy of scale, a single index finger raised from the wheel. Then he peered closer through the ghostly murk on the glass of the cab door. I recognised him in the same moment. A former neighbour, we had both moved. He flung open the cab door, bent down and pleasantries followed, the ‘how ares’, the ‘whats’, and the ‘wid you knows’. Then a small vulpine smile slid across his face: ‘Don’t fancy helping me load that lot, before that lot comes in?’ Ian asked, jabbing his thumb across his chest to the field, to the stack of waiting bales and the rain gathering behind the mountains. ‘Sure,’ I said. ‘Right,’ he said. ‘I’ll get this load in the shed and be back in a jiffy.’

This story is from the June 28, 2023 edition of Country Life UK.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the June 28, 2023 edition of Country Life UK.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM COUNTRY LIFE UKView All
Give it some stick
Country Life UK

Give it some stick

Galloping through the imagination, competitive hobby-horsing is a gymnastic sport on the rise in Britain, discovers Sybilla Hart

time-read
3 mins  |
December 25, 2024
Paper escapes
Country Life UK

Paper escapes

Steven King selects his best travel books of 2024

time-read
3 mins  |
December 25, 2024
For love, not money
Country Life UK

For love, not money

This year may have marked the end of brag-art’, bought merely to show off one’s wealth. It’s time for a return to looking for connoisseurship, beauty and taste

time-read
4 mins  |
December 25, 2024
Mary I: more bruised than bloody
Country Life UK

Mary I: more bruised than bloody

Cast as a sanguinary tyrant, our first Queen Regnant may not deserve her brutal reputation, believes Geoffrey Munn

time-read
2 mins  |
December 25, 2024
A love supreme
Country Life UK

A love supreme

Art brought together 19th-century Norwich couple Joseph and Emily Stannard, who shared a passion for painting, but their destiny would be dramatically different

time-read
5 mins  |
December 25, 2024
Private views
Country Life UK

Private views

One of the best ways-often the only way-to visit the finest privately owned gardens in the country is by joining an exclusive tour. Non Morris does exactly that

time-read
4 mins  |
December 25, 2024
Shhhhhh...
Country Life UK

Shhhhhh...

THERE is great delight to be had poring over the front pages of COUNTRY LIFE each week, dreaming of what life would be like in a Scottish castle (so reasonably priced, but do bear in mind the midges) or a townhouse in London’s Eaton Square (worth a king’s ransom, but, oh dear, the traffic) or perhaps that cottage in the Cotswolds (if you don’t mind standing next to Hollywood A-listers in the queue at Daylesford). The estate agent’s particulars will give you details of acreage, proximity to schools and railway stations, but never—no, never—an indication of noise levels.

time-read
2 mins  |
December 25, 2024
Mission impossible
Country Life UK

Mission impossible

Rubble and ruin were all that remained of the early-19th-century Villa Frere and its gardens, planted by the English diplomat John Hookham Frere, until a group of dedicated volunteers came to its rescue. Josephine Tyndale-Biscoe tells the story

time-read
4 mins  |
December 25, 2024
When a perfect storm hits
Country Life UK

When a perfect storm hits

Weather, wars, elections and financial uncertainty all conspired against high-end house sales this year, but there were still some spectacular deals

time-read
6 mins  |
December 25, 2024
Give the dog a bone
Country Life UK

Give the dog a bone

Man's best friend still needs to eat like its Lupus forebears, believes Jonathan Self, when it's not guarding food, greeting us or destroying our upholstery, of course

time-read
4 mins  |
December 25, 2024