Making hay while the sun shines on the Durham Coast

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a piece for the Guardian Country Diary and posted some pictures here of the exceptionally species-rich Hawthorn Meadows on the Durham coast. The botanical diversity is the result of a late hay cut, which allows the wild flowers to set seed. 




Today, when we walked through the meadow....

....  Durham Wildlife Trust's volunteers were haymaking, on a very warm early autumn day. 

Doing it the traditional way, with wooden rakes and pitchforks, is hard work. The smell of warm, fragrant wild flower hay was wonderful.

A little further up the coast, between Hawthorn Dene and Dawdon, they were haymaking in the National Trust meadows with some labour-saving devices.

Perfect weather for haymaking in Teesdale ...

    































 
Perfect weather for haymaking in Teesdale today .....

... turning hay to dry in dawn-to-dusk sunshine .....

.... and baling hay that was already dry .....

...... leaving bare fields that were full of hay meadow wild flowers a few weeks ago ....

     
































  .... but there are still mountain pansies flowering on the banks that are too steep to cut ....

.... and betony, a late summer flower of rough grassland and pastures, is in bloom ....

... with flowers that are almost as attractive as an orchid, while ....

    .... ripening hazel nuts are a reminder that autumn isn't far away ....

Haymaking in Teesdale

Last time we walked past this tree, in January, we were knee-deep in snow but on Monday....

.. they'd recently cut the hay and it was lying in the sun, drying out. This picture was taken from almost the same point as the one above, but six months later. The aroma of new-mown hay is one of the great scents of summer in Teesdale.

Once it has been cut it needs to be turned, to speed up the drying process before...

...baling.

Haymaking requires hard work, coupled with judgement and luck, picking a dry spell that will last long enough to get the job done. This week (so far) there's been sunshine and little rain in Teesdale ..... good haymaking weather.