traditional view

I was on a mission down a country lane today and came across a thing I haven't seen for a very long time. The mission was nothing exciting, picking up a bit of garden machinery that needed a repair... around here, most things like this involve trips to villages where there's a guy who runs a business in a tucked away building. The building usually reveals itself, when you stand and wait for him to write out the receipt, to be probably 15th century with bits definitely a lot earlier... plus you can glimpse some intriguing stone work through the inevitably mullioned window with the adorable 18th century ironwork. But I digress, the view that had me pull over and get out the camera was this:

poppy field

corn

We think it is probably waiting for the film crew to turn up, as on closer inspection the crop is in there too...
We are so used to seeing fields of just one plant, wheat, corn, barley.. linseed which is a lovely dreamy cloudy blue, or oil seed rape which, quite frankly, is an affront of a colour when in flower. But this is how fields must have looked back in the day before intensive pesticides and the application of modern science to crop growing. It's also fair to say we do get a lot of filming taking place around the region.
So having come from the ancient cottage which has seen hundreds of harvests ripen, brought down with the steady swish of scythes and home on carts, this was a lovely sight to see.
That got me thinking about folk and folk songs and the work songs whole communities would know by rote to help create a steady working rhythm, so maybe I should dig around and find a gentle one we can sing along to as we type, or bead.
When I was small, I loved the Spinning song, which my Dad would sing for me, but Ma hated it and said it was a ghost story. Anyway the rhythm is for spinners at the wheel.