Our 12 year old nephew, who lives in London, stayed with us for part of the weekend, and so naturally he came dog walking with us. The field behind us was only partially harvested, and so we examined the combine harvester, sleeping peacefully in a quiet corner while waiting for the sun to dry the crop and the return of its driver, and then we went to look at what was left of the standing crop. We were just biting into ripe grains of wheat to expose the flour inside, when the farm manager drove onto the field. He was very amiable, and anyway I don’t think that a few grains will be missed. He explained that this crop was destined to be used for seed, to be planted elsewhere on the farm later in the year.
Later we had a BBQ accompanied by the roar of a combine harvester on the other side of the garden fence. I don’t think that our nephew was particularly impressed. Computer games feature much more impressive machines.
