Hay making.

Another glorious day awaits. Most of us are glad to see the sun and feel it’s warmth but it has brought its own problems to this remote corner of Cornwall. People are waiting for the holiday season to start. It’s time to get boats in to the water...but as yet they are all still,safely on the beach. Last night I watched the local farmer doing his hay making. When I was young hay making was a wonderful time of the year. My mum would take me and with many other women we would collect the hay into sheaves. It was hot work but full of joy when the jug was passed around containing cider. Even as a little girl I was allowed a gulp or two. It was full of mirth and concluded with the payment from the farmer. I have no idea what the pay was but it made all those women happy. Hay making time was full of joy..they had money in their pockets! Last night a tractor appeared and did the whole job in a couple of hours. The straw was cut, strewn, gathered into heaps and then another machine gathered it all into bales which are still sitting in the sunshine outside. Hay has been made into bales to feed the cattle through the winter! It was wonderful to see it all happen in front of me. But it was all done by one man and several machines. I suspect thst the job of doing it the old way wouldn’t get many women out there now but it used to be a time for good relationships and laughter. I am sure that much of the chat was well above anything I could have understood as a little girl but I remember it as a time of much laughter and joy. The time I’m remembering was just after the war had ended...when the coins earned by the women were much needed extra cash. I suspect that today’s women wouldn’t want the job anyway..but we all loved it then...in the years just after the war had ended. Much laughter and joy is what I remember. Working together even as a little girl brought a good feeling of achievement. I’m glad to have experienced it .