Long days, long nights

I watched patiently as the machines worked the fields in a clearly well-practised routine. The cutter had already been round and cut down the knee-high grass, and now while the spinner worked one field collecting all the grass into neat rows, the forage harvester collected up the rows and spat them in a constant green stream into the back of the lorry that kept pace alongside. As soon as that was full, the second lorry waiting at the edge of the field would take its place while the first took its turn running its load back to the farmyard. The team worked continuously throughout the day and late into the evening.

As it reached around 7.30pm (still at least an hour and a half until dark) I saw a fox come through the hedgerow in front of me. Keeping an ever watchful eye on the machines working in the