If there’s truth in the saying “the rain in May makes the hay’” then we’re in for a bumper crop.
However, like a lot of those old sayings I’m not entirely sure what it means.
Does it imply that all the rain we’ve had over the last month will ensure a bulky crop? Or does it mean that if we have a wet May we will be guaranteed a spell of fine dry weather for the actual making of the hay in July?
Maybe some of you can enlighten me, but either way I will definitely not be “casting my cloot” till the end of the month.
The Courier’s farming editor will tell you that I usually have this article done with only minutes to spare, but this week I’m actually organised because looking out the window it’s pouring down again.
I feel like Forest Gump when he’s in Vietnam talking about the different types of rain he and his platoon have experienced: ‘’We’ve been through every kinda rain there is, a little bit of stinging rain, big old fat rain, rain that blows in sideways, sometimes the rain seems to come up from underneath’’.
Even our six hens , known here as the “chooks of hazard” are fed up with the weather as they sometimes get caught out in the odd downpour, and with their wet feathers they look like they’re all dolled up like a group middle-aged divorcees on a night out on the town – .a proper hen do!
At least the grass is growing away now and we’ve finally been able to get cattle outside which is .the best job of the year.
We bought a new Simmental bull a couple of weeks ago and until today we hadn’t decided on a nickname for him. He’s in with a few lovely home-grown heifers but this morning I noticed him “chatting up” an old retiree cow at the other side of the fence.
Lawn
The other sore point as I look out of the window is our garden as it currently looks like the Waterloo battlefield.
We decided to plough it all up and sow a nice new lawn so it would be ready for daughter Alice’s first birthday party. I even splashed out on some proper lawn seed instead of using whatever was left in the grass seed barrow.
Away back in March as I moved in with the plough I rather smugly (stupidly) reassured Morag that a lovely new lawn would be in place for the second of July. Well, between the late spring and consistent rain we’re no further forward ……at this rate Astroturf looks like a good option.
At least Alice’s birthday will be a quiet family affair. It’s the ones in five or six years that I’m concerned about.
Catering
When I was growing up the catering at any party was simple: sausage rolls, those little marshmallows with smarties on top and a dumpling with 20p coins in it. I fear this may not be the case in years to come, with Morag and I having to cater for kids that are lactose intolerant, gluten free vegans and allergic to e-numbers. I imagine we will probably need to carry out a health and safety risk assessment just to so we can play rounders!.
It’s not all doom and gloom this month though as last Saturday Alice (lucky charm) and I sat down to watch history being made as St Johnstone won the Scottish cup to add to the league cup that they won back in March.
Champions
Even a football neutral would agree it takes a bit of getting your head round the enormity of this achievement when you consider the Perth club have a budget the fraction of the Old Firm. The fact that they knocked out league champions Rangers in the quarter final means that this was no fluke. It’s just not a victory for St Johnstone but for the underdog in general, it’s also a slap in the face to all those English and European teams that thought they could breakaway to form their own super league.
I know I’m a sucker for nostalgia but yet here we are watching new memories being made. St Johnstone have the won the double and fat lambs are making £180 head….what a time to be alive!
