Posts by Malcolm Barker

May has been a month of catching up on work which should have been done during April.

A month ago, I had the feeling that I was starting to catch up with my work. The sun was shining and the land was drying out after winter.

There is a feeling of spring everywhere. The dry, sunny days in late March have helped to get the spring barley sown and most of the lambs are outdoors and should be grazing the herbal leys and swedes in the coming days.

The days lengthen in February and the four weeks give an extra hour at each end of the day. By the time March arrives, spring arrives also.

Lambing started on my farm on 14 January.

An email from Joan Walker, who was reading a book about the history of the Women’s Land Army, asked if I was aware that my farm (Moor House) had been ‘…managed and run entirely by women’ during WWI?

We have had a wonderful autumn, with trees holding their leaves until quite late and the colours, in particular the beech leaves, giving a golden aura to the passing summer

By its very nature, November is a month of remembrance. As the days grow shorter we remember the summer now past, which was good in parts and better than the cold, dark spring.

Too much rain was a problem early in 2021. I hardly dare say it, but now we need it!

The long summer evenings are suddenly missed by the end of the month as the Sun is setting by 8 pm and suddenly we realise that autumn is here