So another week draws gently to a close.

 Friday 3rd October 2025

It’s been quite a quiet sort of day today — the kind that slips along gently without much to stir it.

Even breakfast was fairly subdued once Eric had finished pulling my leg about giving up farming and going into the haulage business. He said I’d be better off behind a steering wheel than a tractor, though I think he only said it to get a rise out of me. I told him he could keep his lorries — I’ll take a field over a dual carriageway any day.

After that, most of the talking was between Dad and Eric. They were going through what needed doing, sorting the cattle that were due to be taken away. Eric was to get as much as he could done before the weekend, as Dad wants to press on with the drilling. We’re a bit behind after waiting for the new tractor and the long dry spell, and though it’s nothing too worrying yet, Dad’s keeping a close eye on the weather. Now it’s started raining again, he’s half afraid it won’t know when to stop, so he’s eager to get as much seed in as he can while the ground’s right.

It was agreed that Eric would come in to feed over the weekend, and I’d lend a hand if he needed it. That way dad could get going first thing in the morning. My own orders were to go and cultivate the field beside the one I worked on Tuesday — which suited me perfectly. There’s something wonderfully steadying about that job: the throb of the tractor, the nature, the smell of damp soil rising in the air. The world feels smaller and quieter out there, and somehow more my own.

I managed to finish in good time, which was a good thing as it was turning quite nasty with wind and rain. I came in to find Mum setting out tea in the summer house. She’d laid her best china with a plate of little biscuits beside it. We sat there together, listening to the dripping from the apple tree branches that hang over the summer house as we were talking about everything and nothing, content just to be.

By the time we came back indoors, the lamps were glowing softly through the windows and in contrast to the outside, the house had that warm, peaceful feel that makes a day seem properly finished.

And so another week draws gently to a close, the fields worked, the house calm, and my heart quietly full.