The Field

 Yesterday, I sort of threw away a comment that I had decided not to carry on with leasing the field.
I didn’t mean for it to sound dismissive.
It was just time for it to go.
Once, a few years ago now the field was filled with the chatter and movement of animals, activity surrounding four large allotment beds crammed with neat rows of vegetables, fruit bushes and the like.
The Ukrainian Village housed nearly 100 hens in one summer, with satellite houses providing a home for the dim hysterical Runner ducks, a gaggle of geese and the slow moving, delightfully morose turkeys who glided around the paddock like galleons in full sail.
Four pigs lived in the sty in the corner triangle right at the bottom of the field and up in the Ash trees on the Church borders came the noisy chatter of the guinea fowl who serenaded the entire village every morning and every dusk for years and years and years.

The Open Allotment days eventually turned into a successful  village fete with a giant marquee housing, Sylvia and Irene’s famous table busting cake sale ( over 100 homemade cakes donated from the village ladies) and the Name the pig, save the pig Competition  raised hundreds of pounds towards the Church Fund and  The Motor Neurone Association 

I’ve had a wander down memory Lane this morning and have picked out a few photographic memories to share with you all today. 
Enjoy…..

The Ukrainian Village

The allotment beginnings 


The hysterical runners and young cockerel facing off a strange cat in the field 

The villagers at the open day


My brother doing the raffle whilst he was ill

The villagers at my very first open allotment day

The biggest fete open day

The indomitable Sylvia with her record busting cake tent

Halleh the duck who thought he was a hen

The nasty guinea fowl Angostura, pecking at the gentle Boris
( she was named because I always thought she was bitter)

Hughie, Ivy and Alf who lived for years in the Church trees

camilla Parker Bowles as a gosling

Bingley and gentle old William

The famous Ghost hens, the battery broilers who taught me a great lesson about animal cruelty

The allotment was not only filled with vegetables and animals , great swathes of it was planted out to wild flowers


Jesus, the cockerel that just turned up on Boxing Day

The hysterical runners being hysterical

No 21 the nasty old spot sow and the gentle no 12 the saddleback boar as piglets

Camilla after she had crash landed on the binman’s lorry

The sausages made from the pigs

The field has been a good friend to me
And has been one to the village too
I’m not sad to be letting it go
It’s time
And I have new things to do

Hey ho



The huge blind rooster Cogburn


The original Mary ( the injured wild rabbit in her own hutch)

81 comments:

  1. what will happen to it now?

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    1. There is queue of people in the village that want to rent it. It is owned by the Church of Wales , so ultimately it will be sold off as it was gifted to the church as an overspill for the Graveyard.
      Now the church of wales are not extending any of their graveyards, so I suspect it will be sold…hopefully not for building
      But that’s another battle if it happens

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    2. Could the villagers raise the money to buy it for the village?
      Caol

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    3. Does this mean that the Google satellite image of you with your trousers round your ankles will be lost forever?

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  2. I started reading your blog some time ago and simply fell in love with your animals and the village and your everyday life. Thank you for the photos and memories of a happiness shared.

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    1. It was nice to remember those days. Gawd it was hard work though

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  3. I've obviously been reading your blog a lot longer than I realized. Life moves on but I rather miss all the different characters you wove into your story.

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    Replies
    1. There’s always characters around human or animal

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  4. Memories and onto the future,

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    Replies
    1. …….And just like that …………

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  5. Thanks for showing us. Things move on and so do we. You will always have the memories of happy times. I hope, whoever takes the field gets as much enjoyment from it as you obviously have. xx

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    1. I hope so too…..but the next few chapters for the field may be very different

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  6. You have had awesome times. I think if you hold on to things too long, you end up resenting them and lose the positive. It still must have been a difficult decision.

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    Replies
    1. I wound down the field population three years ago , in lieu of moving

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  7. Puts me in mind of that saying-(is it?) Everything has a Season x

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    1. I was thinking exactly the same thing, flis. Great minds and all that! xx

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    2. Working full time means that I could never ever do it justice
      I did think at one time I could get some villagers to help plant out new allotments and share the produce but someone snitched to the land agents and I was stopped

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  8. suzanne dorries1:03 pm

    Lovely pictures of the allotment and animals. It just dawned on me you all named the rooster after John Waynes portrayal of rooster cogburn in true grit. Very clever.

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    1. Yes, he was half blind whereas the real rooster was totally blind
      I loved that trusting old bird .

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  9. How vibrant and lovely. Beautiful times and wonderful memories of friends both human and animal. We go through different stages in life (depending on our age) not that you are old (I believe that is a state of mind). There are new adventures ahead and lots of laughter yet to come. Yesterday has gone, today is the present we give to ourselves and tomorrow is not always promised. Take pleasure in the here and now wherever it takes you as new experiences make you grow xx

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    1. Yes, I’m not sad at all…just reflective

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  10. Some people find it difficult to move on and hold on to things/people which are no longer the best thing for them. I am glad you are ready to move on with your life John. The field is part of the life you thought you might have when you moved to the village. Letting it go signals that you have exciting plans ahead for a new sort of life. Good luck!

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    Replies
    1. I let is go three years ago , but couldn’t quite stop paying the lease
      With new projects on the horizon
      It was time to do just that

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  11. Lovely memories. I remember you had a rabbit that William would watch over in its hutch.

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    1. Yes her name was Mary, I will dig a photo of her out and post that too
      She was a wild rabbit brought in by Albert

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    2. Ah yes- Mary! It would be lovely to see a photo of her and William watching over. x

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  12. I enjoyed all of those photos of the fun that has been had in your village.

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  13. Hopefully John, someone as caring as you have been, will take over the field and allow it to remain part of the agrarian community of your lovely village.
    Is the land for sale or just lease? I pray nobody could purchase and build on it!

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    1. It’s for lease but I suspect the church of wales that own it will eventually sell the land off

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  14. Happy memories. X

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  15. You have many happy memories of the field and the events held there. Change is the one constant we can all rely on. It's a new era for you.

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    Replies
    1. We all live a life of “ eras “ don’t we?

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  16. I had to Google "allotment gardens" to understand what they were. In Canada, we have community gardens which are not quite the same. I hope the new renter fills it with life again.

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    Replies
    1. I thought “ allotment” was universal lol

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  17. I wish I had been around back in the day to see it all like that, sounds idyllic as well as hard work. But times change and you have moved forwards now. As you say it's time to let it go, and who knows perhaps pass the baton to someone who will use the field in a similar way. It would be nice to watch it develop again and just be able to watch this time. ❤️❤️

    We are just in discussions about what might be our last BIG adventure!! You heard it on here first ;-)

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  18. Barbara Anne3:37 pm

    What a wonderful history of good uses for the field next door! I join your hope that there is never a building of any kind on the land.
    Perhaps you can secretly suggest that the villagers toss their extra flower seeds there?

    Hugs!

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  19. If an interesting relic was found by any chance archeologists may then delay any possible future undesirable works x

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  20. A lovely tribute to The Field! There's a beginning and end to everything. Here's to new beginnings and new adventures!

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  21. Thanks for a look back. I didn't "know" you then.
    Will anyone be able to lease the field or even buy it now?
    Good vibes and wishes on your new endeavors, this one looks very worthy.
    And you don't think you are a good person...poo.

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  22. It was a wonderful delightful era of Going Gently, a bit "All Creatures Great and Small"/James Herriot to my American eyes. A time when I maybe fell a little in love w Gentleman Farmer John. I was sad to see the dwindling interest for you, but times change, you have changed, and your future will be rewarding I know.

    lizzy x

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    1. I had to change to move on a few years ago, strange where things go eh?

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  23. A lovely look back on the field old lad, which has left many of us with wonderful memories. Time is right for the next chapter m’thinks, hey ho indeed.

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    1. I remember constructing a hen house with you

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  24. veg artist5:58 pm

    That looks like a lot of work, but time to let go and put your energies, mental and physical, elsewhere.

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    1. I’d let it go a few years ago, it was the final tie yesterday

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  25. I had wondered about the allotment lately and wasn’t at all surprised that you were letting the lease go. I enjoyed all the things you did, and was always awed by how much work it must have been. A great ride. And time to fill that time with other things.

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  26. I enjoy your photographs. Have you ever thought about having them published in a book?

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  27. I wonder what will happen to the field now. Maybe someone will build a house there. Do you think they could get planning permission?

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  28. Great memories that brought smiles!

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  29. Great memories indeed.

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    1. I’d forgotton many of the characters

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  30. A real trip down memory lane John - a sad one in some ways for you. x

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    1. Not at all pat
      I wouldn’t and couldn’t go back there xxx

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  31. What good times the village had there. Community building at its best and all that. Letting it go now is another step forward. If it does finally get sold, I hope it's not turned into 20 ticky-tacky boxes! An old house on a decent section (probably the original Quarter acre) was sold, pulled down at ten three storied shoeboxes have been put on the site. They look ghastly. I do hope that's not in your future.

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  32. That's when I first found you, John, caught on a satellite out by a stray building. It was a lovely run, and now it's done.

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  34. Lovely days to look back on I enjoyed your posts of the Ukrainian village, and all the other goings on at that time, it was quite an accomplishment the way you pulled the villagers together to make the open days a success.
    A new chapter awaits and I hope it will be all you wish it to be anyway enjoy the ride John thanks for taking us along here on Going Gently.

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  35. This was the time I began reading your blog. I remember all of the stories about your lovely animals. Camilla and the runner ducks, and the lovely gentle Turkey. The allotments and the open days. The village fete. It feels you have gone a long way with the changes in your life it has been a pleasure to follow along and be an onlooker. Whatever is coming next I am excited as you for you. Onwards!

    Jo in Auckland

    P.S for some reason it won't allow me to be me.

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    1. Oh... so now blogger lets me be me!

      Jo in Auckland

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  36. A veritable one field FARM. I hadn't realised that it was so extensive. It looked bloody marvellous, and puts Haddock's to shame.

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  37. I love seeing all these memories and seeing the critters again. I completely get the need to move on though. The field is wasted if doing nothing.Seeding it with wild flowers would be a great idea.

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  38. You are gradually letting go.

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  39. I miss those days. I guess they are not coming back.

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  40. No. 21 may have been a nasty sow but she was quite beautiful, at least outwardly. I love your description of the turkeys as galleons at full sail!

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