Harvest ballet

Well I don't know, it might not impress you but this had me transfixed today. So much so that we stopped the car and got out to watch. We were on our way home from a wedding in Norfolk (good family do in a beautiful house) when we saw this harvesting going on.

I noticed the harvesting machine itself first. It advanced through the field in perfectly straight lines taking down whole swathes of this tall crop - itself planted in perfectly straight rows. The whole lot was minced into tiny pieces which were spat, on the move into the waiting lorry which travelled alongside at exactly the same speed.

As one lorry got full another empty one joined in, poised to take over and as the first full lorry pulled away the second took its place with barely a heartbeat's time gap before the harvester again began spewing its load. The harvester stopped for nothing and there was always one, sometimes two lorries waiting in the wings to take on the collecting role.

As the harvester made its way around the four edges of the crop rectangle it got smaller and smaller until suddenly the harvester abandoned its previous pattern of behaviour and took out opposite corners of the crop rectangle instead. AlfeeTee realised this was so there'd be two sensible long rows to finish off, rather than an ever-decreasing square that the harvester wouldn't be able to work round easily.

The whole process was super-efficient with not a single plant left behind or a single moment squandered* It was balletic and quite mesmerising and we didn't want to leave until the whole field had been flattened, which didn't take long at all at their preferred speed. I nearly clapped when they'd finished. It was a performance worthy of a bow.

I think maybe I was enthralled by the efficiency because it's so completely different to the bonkers chaos that is family life - as we hurtle from one event or club or day or term to another and bounce off walls in the process trying to avoid significant injury. I wouldn't give it all up for the world but sometimes it would be nice to have a little bit of simplicity and a clear end goal with simple well-defined steps to reach it...

Anyway lucky old me is off to Wales tomorrow for a few days with my Ma and Pa. They're staying in Porthmadog in North Wales on holiday and I kind of invited myself along, since I feel like a bit of head straightening is in order right now. Even if I can't achieve efficient straight lines in life it would be nice to appreciate the crazy bends and swerves a bit more than I have been recently. Hopefully these few days'll do that.

I'm not sure what mobile reception will be like so blipping and certainly visiting your journals might be a bit hit and miss but I'll do my best lovely peeps. X

*actually there was one solitary plant left behind which you can see in this photo if you look carefully. I don't think they were best pleased because the next lorry swerved out of its way to run over it!