18th August 2016 "Bales may safely graze."

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Thursday 18th 64F, 18C, bright, breezy from the north and rather cloudy but dry. The very first bird I noticed was a Coal tit foraging in the hedge while gulls screamed high overhead. Then I noticed a tractor and baler parked in the corner of a distant field. So I decided to photograph it and the row of huge bales it had made earlier. Just as I closed on the baler two farm workers arrived in a car to take the tractor and baler to a new venue. I gave them a wave and they carried on after the initial surprise of finding a [very] strange bod on their field.

That's a five tread ladder just to reach the cab and this isn't even remotely one of the largest tractors around. I measured myself against one of the bales and it came up to my t-shirt neckline. It was considerably longer than its height and depth. This helps to give some idea of the remarkable scale of the machine and matching tractor. One slight oddity is that a bale always seems to be left in the back of baling machines to be pushed out by new bales at the next session.Which begs the question of what they do with the last bale at the end of the season? Do they keep a pet goat or lamb on the end of a long length of harvester twine to steadily gnaw the bale away over the winter?

After coffee I rode off to have my ears syringed. I was averaging 17-19mph on the tri-bar extensions but the Brooks B17 saddle is very uncomfortable riding at that low angle! My right ear has improved but my left is still deaf to lower frequencies. It seems I may have to take an audio test and even consider a hearing aid. Pardon? It is a damned nuisance not being able to hear properly. Conversation in foreign languages becomes even more difficult and TV/Netflix too loud just to hear the dialogue clearly. Probably the worst is that I can't hear the sociopaths racing around the blind corners towards me.  Only 7 miles in a cross/head gale going both ways.

"Bales may safely graze."

It stayed cool all day as I tidied the trike shed to the sound of farm machinery working hard on the surrounding fields. In case you were interested: The leather saddle bag weighed all of 6 lbs to the Carradice Camper's modestly emaciated 1.8lbs. I emptied both bags to avoid any potential bias. I don't think I'll bother going back to whispered accusations of leather fetishism. Which still leaves me with an alternative to the Camper + sports bag conundrum. What will he do next?

A very large, White-tailed eagle has just been circling over our garden. Distinctly white tail, pale head and a huge yellow beak seen easily through the binoculars. Massive dark wings outstretched with 'finger' feathers at the tips as it soared effortlessly at least 200' overhead. Too high for my little TZ7 camera to capture anything useful.

I hear the Scots landlords are still mass slaughtering their "protected" birds of prey. It's like there's no profit or fat bonuses in having them around the tame shooting bird galleries. The birds of prey keep disappearing off the satellite tracking system and these trackers are utterly reliable by now down to the nearest few yards. No doubt the bird's heads are adorning some local pub wall to amusement of the gathered "investment banker gentry" as they pay through the nose for re-bottled, piss-poor, local malt whiskey instead of enjoying the real stuff from Aldi. Wouldn't it be great fun if somebody sent over a drone and took out the real Eco-terrorists for a nice bit of target practice before going off to war to defend "their betters?'  There's a certain irony in vengeance raining down from the air.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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