It's all go

Spring in the vineyards opposite our house. The vignerons have finished pruning all the vines. Bear in mind that there are no machines that prune vines - only people. The Languedoc has around 280000 hectares under vine so that's about 500 million vines that have to be pruned by hand. You can understand why every winegrower is relieved when the job is done. It all has to be finished by March or the sap starts rising in the vine and you can see it crying, and as this winter has been so warm there was even more pressure to get it over.

The next job is to ensure that the vines have enough water and the best way of doing that is to break the soil up so the rain is absorbed rather than running straight off. In the photo two vignerons are driving their tractors up and down the treacherous slopes. As the vines are planted in rows with fairly narrow gaps between them, the tractors have to be narrow too. That raises the centre of gravity and increases their ability to topple over - especially on a gradient. Many of the tractors carry huge chunks of steel or concrete low down to lower the centre of gravity. It's all a fine balancing act and it's not infrequently misjudged in the effort to get to that last little corner of the field.