Farm Diary
We need a charismatic leader to inspire us all
Perfect weather during the day has enabled us to get a huge amount of work done in the last week. Maize drilling is going well and all the young-stock are out grazing.
Primroses flourish following the dank and dismal winter
So who turned on the switch marked ‘spring’ last Friday? The garden has burst into life with hyacinths in flower, lilac budding and the magnolia tree in its full glory, but quite a worry with frost at night.
Uplifting view of young commitment and ethics
The cold rain last week stopped all operations and did little good to be honest, what was really needed was some warm showers and not the wintery drizzle which fell.
Mrs Downs Diary
Mucking out smell is still hanging in the air
If print was scratch and sniff, you would be inhaling the rich,
Dehorning rodeo leaves us bloodied and bruised
THE swallows are back. Virtually establishing themselves overnight in old haunts of meal shed, dairy and the trailer.
Winter weather has left the farmers scrambling for feed
An unseemly scramble for spare hay and silage available to buy,
Serial ‘child abusers’ are locked up in the stocks
With the threat of Schmallenberg lifted, we have been able to enjoy this last week of lambing. There have been the usual ups and downs,
Nature Notes
Old croakers make their exit
IN MAY Ravens take their families down to the beach where food for the young families is easier to find. Ours have already gone.
Rooks provide an easy-going falsetto song
HOW MANY rooks are there in Britain? People have been asking that question since at least 1878, when the first census began in Scotland.
Memories of unfashionable bird nesting
AS USUAL I got an Easter egg this year. I like the small ones especially, the ones with sugary ‘crème’ inside. It must go back to childhood. Many things do.
Carola Godman Irvine
Difficulty in keeping the workplace totally safe
There is an ongoing lively debate taking place in the farming press following the situation when a member of the public took a photograph of a Hampshire farmer lifting two farm workers in a grain bucket on an extended tele-handler up to a barn roof. The farmer was reported to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) by the observer, as a result of which he has been heavily fined for this infringement of health and safety.
Spring finally brings host of tasks to do despite the damp
HAVING been treading water, literally, and making little progress with field work throughout the long winter months, now that spring has arrived there are so many jobs to do and it is difficult to know just where to begin.
Foxglove
‘Black pearls’ with eyes of obsidian
I am sitting on the trunk of a felled tree, with a horse rug around me. Although the day is bright, and warm enough if you are on the move, the wind is brisk and a touch unfriendly to those who are sitting still, as if to encourage us to arise and do some proper work.
Whippet’s help during a shoot
A slow spring gave us one more crack at the grey squirrels. It was a last-minute arrangement: a few calls to see who else was available, and off to the usual meeting-place, which starts as a gateway to a drive that looks as if nobody ever goes there.
- Brighton and Hove Albion training ground extension approved, despite flood fears
- Big hearted Craig, 24, has given life to others
- Preview: Crystal Palace v Brighton & Hove Albion FC - play-off semi-final
- At the Vets: Going on holiday? Make sure that your pets have a good time too
- The forgotten horror writer who sold more books than Bram Stoker’s Dracula
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Weather for West Sussex
Sunday 19 May 2013
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 11 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Light rain
Temperature: 12 C to 17 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: North
