Come Down to Kew in Lilac Time

That old poem by Alfred Noyes for some reason came to mind today while at work beside the blooming lilac bushes. I don't know if we studied it in high school or if one of my British ancestors used to quote it but the lines about lilac time stick in my mind like so many other bits of useless information.
These in the photo were planted by some of my Nevard ancestors near the old yard and they are usually out in full force when I am doing spring planting in the field they reside by.
Today was not really planting, actually pre-working the ground in hopes of drying it up and killing a heavy growth of weeds. The 4 inches of rain last week has made a lot of the field impassable and I have spent a lot of time and fuel literally spinning my wheels today but did manage to get a lot of the field worked. How did I ever farm without a front wheel assist tractor? 2 wheel drive would be useless in these muddy conditions. 4 wheel drive or tracks would be better. Working by the highway is always interesting with all sorts of traffic passing. Some must have wondered what this crazy farmer was doing out in the mud with a tractor and cultivator.
Many sloughs were running over into the next one. The water must be coming up out of the ground. The sun and wind co-operated and soil conditions did improve as the day progressed but still a long way to go. Hoping to plant flax here but it has to be soon. We are hitting the first of June tomorrow and any crop planted in June I consider at high risk here.

My Great Grandmother

No, this post does not have any reference to farming. Today, actually most of this week's weather has not been conducive or encouraging for those of us who work the soil and grow crops. Occasional wet snow and rain combined with cold temperatures are not drying the fields. What started out as an early spring is , day by day, turning into an average or maybe a late spring.
I suppose I might have put the photo over on the Nevard blog but I'd already done an entry there today so here is the photo for today.

My great grandmother, Sarah (Wagstaff) Nevard posing in front of her home at 36 Straight Road, Lexden , Essex, U.K. At age 95 she was still capable of baking bread as evidenced by the two loaves she is holding. Pretty impressive.  

Love Letters from a century ago

Saxmundham
April 26/1910

My Dear Horrie

I was very pleased to receive your nice letter this morning and to hear that you were all well. I hope you are still having nice
weather so that you can get the seed in alright. We are having very showery weather here at present. Father has finished
putting the seed corn in and today he has been drilling beet or (mangold) and then will only have the swedes to drill.
Does your cow give much milk? We got 68 pounds of butter this week which is the most we have ever had. We are going to
take it to the town tomorrow but there will be too much to carry all one time. We get about 56 eggs in a day.
It was 4 years ago yesterday since you went away from here. Annie went back to London last Saturday. She had a nice
little change as she stayed here three weeks. Herbert was very good to spare her for so long wasn't he?.
Louie and little Ethel are at Lexden.They went a fortnight ago last Saturday. I don't know when they are coming back again.
The Suffolk Agriculture show is going to be held at Saxmundham this year in June and in July the Essex Yeomanry and the
Essex and Suffolk. Cyclists are coming to camp on Hurts Hall Park, Saxmundham so I expect it will seem quite a busy place.
Is there any flowers out on the prairie yet? The cowslips are out in the meadows now. I am sending you one just for a little
remembrance of the last time you were here. I wonder how long it will be before I see you again. I don't think I shall forget you
even if it is lots of years and now I think I will bring my letter to a close as it is getting rather late.
Hoping you are all quite well. With love to all and my best and truest love to you Dearest, I remain your everloving Alice
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Yet another in the collection of letters mailed between my grandfather and grandmother, Horace Nevard and Alice Hall.
Horace had sailed off to Canada to take up a homestead in Sask. in 06 while Alice remained working on her parents farm at
Saxmundham, Suffolk.How difficult must it have been for him to sail half way around the world not knowing when they might
see each other again? And it was to be another 6 years before they met again when
Horace returned to England in 1916 in the Canadian
Expeditionary Force , soon to see action in some of the big battles of World War I in France. It must have been a stressful time to be separated
all those years , briefly re-united and then separated again by war , now knowing if he would survive. Luckily he did and they were married in 1919, soon to return to his homestead in Saskatchewan.