When I was small, living in the Surrey countryside, all haystacks looked much like the above. They were usually constructed in the field where the hay had been cut, and were properly thatched on top; often with beautifully fashioned hay birds or animals at each end of the roof, which acted as finials.
There were annual competitions for the best made and most beautiful haystack, and farmers took real pride in their construction.
Nowadays things are a little different. With all the ease that comes with big efficient machinery, this is the result. Call me old fashioned, but I don't need to tell you which I prefer!
It's never wise to hanker after the past, but I really do miss the craftsmanship and everyday aesthetics of previous times. The Industrial Revolution gave us so much, but it's also taken so much away.
It's pouring here. Good for Haddock's; not so good for dog-walking!
ReplyDeleteCould not agree with you more, I also get sentimental about the past, which means less technology, more work but much more romance and beauty...
ReplyDeleteSunny skies and a first real and hot summer day in ages is beginning here.;)
xoxo
A thing of beauty is a joy forever
ReplyDeleteYou are so right Cro.....I agree with you as I do most days.
ReplyDeleteDon't get me started on the 'noblesse oblige' winter practice of keeping the labourers in food by 'hedging and ditching' as opposed to the slashers they use these days - and that meant a lot more than just making the country lanes a bit more beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI could not believe how fast the farmer cut, turned and baled the hay this year. One of our local farmers has clearly invested in some new and powerful looking kit which makes very short work of a task that once took days. His baler produces the giant round bales that look slightly more rustic than the plastic wrapped ones. (Weather doesn't look too good for Lumberjack's first picnic evening.)
ReplyDeleteI think we may stay at home... unless there's a miracle.
Deleteyes I agree with Zuzana, her words sum it up beautifully.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in the city, I never saw haystacks like those you mentioned. All the loss for me. Now though living in countryside, I see rolls and rolls of hay laying in the fields and I do find something lovely in that also.
ReplyDeleteYour old farmers seemed to have been a lot more artistic than ours. I only remember the rectangle bales, but now they are very large round ones. I love your old fashioned ones too.
ReplyDeleteAlso, thanks for the comment on the highlighted text. I was wondering about that, and was not feeling well enough to care, so let it go. Things are always changing on the blog.
Oh, yeah, forgot to comment about the "new" method your farmers use. I have not seen that before either.
DeleteI don't think that's hay in the second photograph but the new genetically modified cows, the sort that roll themselves efficiently backwards and forwards across a field.
ReplyDeleteWe got our harvest in the traditional way. Next door harvested theirs with all the latest machinery. We've got two acres and they've got two hundred - think that was the reason.
ReplyDeleteFrom the description of the ricks being saved in "Far from the Madding Crowd" I assumed a peaked top, but not over the top.
ReplyDeleteThose were the days. Walking through the fields to the Hare and Hounds and passing haystacks on the way.
ReplyDeleteIt's always down there that I remember them.
DeleteI think hay mounds are beautiful...but love the individual ones you see in the fields here. I know everything takes a lot of work and have not thought of all it takes for them to be there.....
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