Jim Webster's Blog, page 33

My secret sin

Not my confessions, these are the well chosen words of a friend of mine, Will Macmillan Jones. I have a vice. I’m going to confess to it, here. Openly, and with only the merest flicker of shame to season the pot. I know I have your attention now! But fear not, I have no intention …

Don’t look at me, I’m not an engineer

  I genuinely haven’t a clue how much of my life has been spent working with, and on, these drum muck spreaders. The idea is simple; a long drive shaft spins, powered by the tractor. Fastened to the shaft are flails, steel chains with a solid block on the far end. So when you’ve filled …

Uniquely unqualified

  Ah the wonderful world of social media and the joys of being connected. Way back I joined Linkedin. Frankly I’m not entirely sure why. I suppose that being, amongst other things, a freelance writer/journalist; I thought it might possibly bring a little work my way. Needless to say it hasn’t. Still in spite of …

I would have mentioned it before but I’ve been busy

  Apparently in this age of social media, where we’re all on-line all the time, it’s impossible to be out of touch. So if the theory’s right I have no excuse for getting back to you earlier. But in this beautiful area we are truly blessed. You see, mobile connection is distinctly iffy. My phone, …

A holiday

  How often does anybody offer you a free walking holiday, exotic food, fabulous vistas, fine wine and guaranteed good company, and all in the comfort of your own home? Here’s an opportunity to get away from it all. Plug the fitbit into the laptop and let it clock up the virtual miles whilst you …

Hedgerows

You can get asked a lot of interesting questions when you start writing a blog. You can end up being quoted in all sorts of places as well. Providing part of a clergyman’s sermon on one hand, quoted as part of somebody’s university paper on the other. (In fact because it’s ‘published’ in a blog …

Big skies and ice-cream

I remember a friend of mine once asking me if I was impressed with the ‘big skies’ of Cambridgeshire. We were visiting the area at the time and given the area is pretty flat, I suppose you can have quite a lot of sky. What she hadn’t realised was I live on the edge of …

Cultural Landscape isn’t cheap

Earlier this week I was at a conference about ‘cultural’ and ‘natural’ landscapes. Throughout the conference we got references to how important agriculture was in creating these landscapes. Indeed Unesco in their granting World Heritage Site status to the Lake District pay generous tribute to the two hundred sheep farming families whose activities largely created …

Autumnal

With dawn on the 1st September, autumn struck. I went out to look sheep and whilst it was bright, it was cold. The mist was just burning off from our moss land and the dew was very heavy on the grass. Half an hour later the sun was up high enough to feel warm, but …

Keeping the show on the road

My Dad entered the job market in the 1930s, which wasn’t perhaps the best time, all things considered. Not only that but given his background he had a choice between going down the mines as an iron ore miner, or farm work, and being the rebel he was, he chose farm work. The wages were …