Life Observed

Different micro climates on Cyprus support different forms of agriculture. Down in the valleys there are serried ranks of citrus trees. Oranges and lemons are common here, and can be seen lying at the sides of rural roads. This is where you will find olive groves* Up in the Troodos mountains you will find conifers and goats.  Between these two zones, farmers appear to grow stones or luxury villas. Why is it always a grove when olives are involved? Why is it not an olive forest.

I'm worn out. Leave me alone. I spent all day ticking boxes and filling in forms. After all, that's what we do now, isn't it.

Who says that sheep are not intelligent? This sheep, a long suffering Lundyphobiac, has learned to hide in the grass whenever the island is near. This depends on the well known tenet that - if you can't see the island, it can't see you. I tell you: Sheep will take over the world one day. You have been warned.

This is the time of year that all the planning, the effort and the risk pays off. This is the time of year that the heavyweight equipment is wheeled out.  Yes, this is the time of year you take your life in your hands on country roads as Agricultural Contractors blast from farm to farm with the largest tractors you have ever seen. Actually, when you think about it, the wheat doesn't stand a chance.

Why are nettles so vindictive ? Why do they pack such a stinging punch, and what are they trying to protect? I mean, it's not as if they are an endangered species or anything. Meanwhile, watch out, there's a nettle in the woodpile....    Carpe Urtica, eh? Add caption

The old mysterious barn. I have had my eye on this for a few months, and I grabbed a picture as I drove past recently. I think this deserves a return trip when no one is around...

This was one of those scenes that make you stop the car on the way to work to get the picture before it vanishes.  I was much taken by the almost graphic nature of the scene. The black and white of the snow on the tree trunks caused by the cold Easterly winds we've had recently.  This narrow stand of trees are thinned and maintained regularly, so I suppose they are some sort of habitat. Click on the picture for a larger version. Farming seems to include a lot of habitat these days. When I was young it included a lot of mud.

This is the horse paddock in winter. The copse of trees in the middle of the paddock is surrounded with a basic wooden fence. I wonder why? The fence won't keep deer or rabbits out. Perhaps it's supposed to keep the horses out. Do horses eat trees? Answers on a ten pound note please.

Winter: The grass grows slowly, and the sheep have cropped the field to the ground. Time to move them to pastures new. You thought that sheep were driven along by dogs from the back didn't you?  Well, the combination of a quad bike behind and the rustling feed bag up front does the trick without all the doggy stuff.

Well one of these two is keeping the game... This is one of those are occasions where I feel a square crop works best for the picture. 

Looking for all the world like some kind of bizarre Meccano galaxy, this old tedder wheel makes a great subject. Hay is grass that is cut and dried . The cutting bit is easier than the drying bit, so you should make hay while the sun shines . A Tedder re-arranges your hay in the field in order to get some air into it and I suppose it can be used to fluff up the hay if it has been rained on.

What is the point of this? It is a handbrake on a farm trailer. Yes, I suppose it has to be fitted by Euro law or some health and safety rule. You know what will happen. If you actually use it on a slope the trailer will roll away anyway. If you come back in a week it will have rusted on and the wheels will be locked. They fit them. No-one uses them.  At least it is somewhere to hang the hydraulic pipe...

I would hate to repeat myself, but as you can see, its spring again.

We often accuse clumsy or heavy handed items of having an agricultural design. Well it is true. Agricultural implements are not exactly delicate and decorative. Here we have a close up of the mud scraper on a large roller, made of sheet steel and showing all the signs of a lifetimes battering.  My examination of the roller reveals this home made scraper, welded on to the frame, replaced the previous one which broke or wore away. Perhaps the farmer fitted the thickest chunk of metal available to make the thing last longer. Agricultural design?  Yes. Absolutely.

We live in a land of plenty, compared to the rest of the world. The harvest has started and the farmers are clearing the fields as fast as possible while the rain stays away. There is so much wheat being moved to and fro that whole loaf fulls are dropped on the ground whenever the trailer goes over a bump in the track..

You should know your Cocksfoot from your Ryegrass , and you sould be able to spot Ergots and Nitrogen deficiency if you aim to be a countryman. So: Here is Timothy grass, named after Timothy Hanson, an American agriculturalist according to wikipedia. I really would like to claim Mr Hanson as a relative, he seems like a nice guy. Most of our near namesakes seem to be disagreeable  types .

The months of rain followed by a couple of weeks of sun have transformed the farm meadows. The grass is waist high and the weeds are even higher. Farmers have started to cut for hay, a risky business that requires a few more days without rain for the hay to dry before it is taken indoors. It must taste nice, becuse it sure doesn't look appetising.

Minimal treatment for this ripe crop picture. The current farmers' dilemma is when to start the harvest. This sudden and extreme hot spell following on months of record breaking rain is drying the ground and drying the crops nicely. Dry crops are better than damp ones. If you go early, you will harvest the wheat but you may have to pay to get it dried, and this reduces the profits. If you wait, the rains might return and lay the top heavy plants down, making them difficult to harvest. Full treatment on this image of a Rape seed crop. I used extreme amounts of shadow and highlight correction to produce a HDR like image, with further shading in the sky and foreground. All this treatment was intended to inject life into an otherwise static image of a crop waiting its fate. In this case the seeds are not ready, they haven't turned black. I note that a mere fifteen minutes in the sun was enough to burn my arms. When the sun finally does come out it does...

Here's a humble design icon from the farm barn. It's the standard Jerrycan. Designed in the 1930s for the German military, and given the catchy name Wehrmacht-Einheitskanister. It is full of clever design ideas and definitely fit for purpose. The old fashioned screw top square petrol cans that our Tommies had were so uselss by comparison that they started comandeering any "Jerry Cans" they came across. Eventually this simple and iconic design was copied by the American and the Russian forces by the end of the War.

What could be worse than being locked in a prison cell and fed once a day while the guards display great piles of food just down the corridor. I tell you, if horses could work out how to undo door bolts they would be off and away to feasting and liberty. This is, of course, another context picture as discussed on these faded pages before.