The smell of cowpats crusting in the sun, and the sudden swirl of dung flies rising as I pass, or the smell of manure drying in the summer sun in the empty cattle fold as a stock-dove rises with a sudden clap of wings, and I’m back as a boy mooching around the farm in the summer holidays. Manure has many pleasant associations for those of us brought up on farms. The faint whiff of dried cow-muck on my father’s overalls was part of his comforting warm aura. He used to say that when he mucked out the rows of pigsties (before whitewashing them and putting nice fresh straw down for the hop-pickers) that the smell of pig muck gave him quite an appetite. I hope that worked for the hop-pickers too, eating their bread and jam.
Squirrelling away the Squirrels
Squirrelling away the Squirrels
Squirrelling away the Squirrels
The smell of cowpats crusting in the sun, and the sudden swirl of dung flies rising as I pass, or the smell of manure drying in the summer sun in the empty cattle fold as a stock-dove rises with a sudden clap of wings, and I’m back as a boy mooching around the farm in the summer holidays. Manure has many pleasant associations for those of us brought up on farms. The faint whiff of dried cow-muck on my father’s overalls was part of his comforting warm aura. He used to say that when he mucked out the rows of pigsties (before whitewashing them and putting nice fresh straw down for the hop-pickers) that the smell of pig muck gave him quite an appetite. I hope that worked for the hop-pickers too, eating their bread and jam.