12 August 2016 Gotta climb a ladder or two.

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Friday 12th 55F, 13C,  almost calm with a heavy overcast. Showers possible later. The farmers were harvesting noisily by multiple headlights at 11.30 last night. I was too tired to stay awake and listen to their activities.

Left for an early walk to play chicken with the mesmerized commuters.  Have they absolutely no concept of the sheer lunacy of sitting on each other's tails? Have they never questioned this weird behaviour? The road is humped and winding and marked continuously for miles/km with double white lines prohibiting overtaking. How do they respond? By sitting in a low gear on the bumper of the car in front waiting for an opportunity to overtake. Dugh? Dogh.

I was able to cross large, stubble fields where the harvesting was complete hoping for new viewpoints or even a temporary short cut. Then had to return to my starting point when a single, adjoining field had yet to be gathered in.

Lots of swallows tirelessly patrolling the fields. I tried to photograph about 20 of them sitting in neat rows on a large TV aerial but they took off when a car passed.

Hooded crows in their smart, grey jackets were perching on large bales after they had driven a Red Kite away. Later, small clouds of sparrows moved around nervously as they picked over the insects knocked down by the fast moving traffic. Quite a risky breakfast for the inexperienced young who were not yet strong fliers. Several feathery corpses lay flattened on the main road. A long, grey, rest day dangling from assorted ladders in the service of The Head Gardner.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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