Love of the Land

Available for over a year

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Revd Virginia Luckett Good morning. Having moved only six Autumns ago, from London to rural West Dorset, I'm just beginning to understand the ebb and flow of the UK farming year, helped by a couple of local farmers and by watching the seasonal changes in the livestock and crops in the fields around my house. Here, they farm beef, dairy and lamb and any crops, like maize, are grown for winter feed. In the Spring, the field next door is full of ewes and lambs. Carefully delivered in trailers, all of a tumble coming out. Their cacophony of bleating as they arrive seems to fill the Vale, until they sort themselves out and the mothers and their offspring are reunited again. I like to check, by looking at their matching numbers sprayed on their backs. Come in number 18! Now Autumn is with us, and the rain, the cattle have moved from the hills, herded down the lane past my house, into the winter barns, safe from the worsening weather and the mud of the often waterlogged fields.. And yesterday, when I looked out at sunrise across the field next door, I saw a bevy of pheasants, picking at the grass once grazed by the sheep. Much needed diversification, I’m told, because of the sale price of beef and lamb. These birds, bred for the shoot. In my watching and listening to the farming life, I am coming to understand how demanding it is and can appreciate that it's like a vocation, a love of the land. So today, I ask for God’s rich blessing on all our farmers. May you know, a good, and disease free winter, and an abundant Spring. Amen.