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The Autumn is well and truly with us, but we can take one last look at the summer thanks to these lovely warm and vibrant images taken in August, sent in by Colin Douthwaite.

Colin says in his e-mail that the images:-

were taken on Saturday evening at Broughton looking west after stopping the car on the way home. They do not do justice to the stunning sky.

There is nothing quite like a beautiful summer evening sky as the sun starts to go down. Each one is unique.

Many thanks Colin for sending in the photos.

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This fascinating photograph of Slingsby was sent in by Geoff Brooks. Geoff says:-

‘Find attached a photo that was loaned to me by Tony Hodgson. He was given it recently by relatives of Nancy Stroughair. It is A3 size so I had to scan it and join two ‘halves’ but it has come out not bad.

I believe it is about 1980 as the wall around the field is in the process of being demolished and replaced with the fence. (There are other details of my house that suggests a similar date.)

Points to note.

• Sportsfield – the old green and pink zinc pavilion is still there in the photo and the road across didn’t exist. The road and new clubhouse went up in 1988.
• The Co-op was still open as the Co-op.
• The majority of the area now developed as Sycamore Close was still a cornfield with a big tree in it. However, the then Council bungalows in the entrance to Sycamore Close had alrady been built (finished in 1977 I believe).
• The Robin Hood Caravan Park had not been developed, and the house on site had not been built.
• Aspen Way didn’t exist.
• Perry’s Coaches operated from their yard.
• The large houses adjoining George Carr’s had not been built.

Thanks to Tony for the loan of the photo.

Many thanks to Geoff for sending the photo and text into the website.

Harvesting potatoes in a cloud of dust on Stuart Prest’s farm at Fryton

The corn harvest is almost complete, just a few beans still to combine. What wonderful weather we have had for harvest certainly for the second half of it. It makes life so much easier and less costly when the grain comes from the combine dry and needing very little artificial drying. On the whole crops have yielded reasonably well but not outstanding, unfortunately the grain price has plummeted so anyone who didn’t sell the crop forward will be having a hard time.

Autumn is upon us and thoughts have now turned to sowing next years corn crops and harvesting root crops, particularly potatoes, and again there are some very good crops of potatoes this year. Potatoes bruise very easily when being harvested and they really need a cushion of soil to go up the harvester with them so believe it or not a good rain would help enormously.

The shooting season is fast approaching with the pheasant shooting season beginning on the 1st October. We run a shooting syndicate round Slingsby which many local people are involved in. It seems strange but shooting and conservation work very well together. On Castle Farm I grow about 6 acres of grain crops, mainly triticale ( a cross between wheat and rye) and linseed. This provides good feed and cover for game birds but also of course is very good for small birds as well. If you consider that 6 acres of grain will produce about 12 tonnes of seeds that’s an awful lot of bird food. We also carefully monitor the number of partridges in the area as they have been in serious decline in recent years, partly through bad weather but also through an increase in predators like foxes, badgers and carrion crows and a reduction in good nesting sites. I try to help remedy this by sowing 6 metre grass margins, controlling some predators and feeding the birds through harsh winters.

The leaves on the trees are changing colour and already there are some spectacular colours in the woodlands and hedgerows Its been a bumper year for brambles and there are lots of fruit and berries on the trees and hedgerows We shall have plenty to celebrate at our harvest festivals this year.

Stephen Prest