Barley

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I walked out to the edge of town this morning and wandered slowly (I don't do fast) along gazing at the fields of Barley growing far too slowly for the farmers liking, and watched the Swifts cavort over my head. What a lovely way to spend the early morn. I suppose the Barley is headed for beer or whisky use although some goes into foodstuffs and other uses. Rabbie Burns often called whisky 'John Barleycorn,' as I am sure the literary amongst you would realise.  Barley was the first grain to be domesticated and was known around ten thousand years ago. When Jesus taught his men to pray, "Give us our daily bread," most would have considered he meant Barley Bread as this was the cheap staple of most people. Wheat Bread cost around three times as much! It is fair to say that as a staple it was worth much more than the bread so many of us eat today. Most white bread and a great deal of brown stuff bought from supermarkets is so bad for us. The requirement for shelf life has led to a manipulation of bread to make it dangerous for us to keep eating. Some doctors are beginning to believe that this is a major cause of much illness!  The bread of Jesus day would not have anything taken out, and better still nothing put in!  There are many additives in bread that the producers do not have to identify on the label. Can this be good for us?  It is time to review what we are stuffing into ourselves, and I know for a fact that this government will do nothing to hinder big business, will they?

As I walked, still chewing the breakfast toast that lingered, I looked skywards and attempted to count the host of fast moving Swifts that gamboled in the sky. At first there was twelve, or was it twenty, the brutes kept moving, left and right, up and down, swooping at high speed past my ear and racing to the far reaches of the field and returning high above. It was like untangling a ball of string, it just cannot be done!  I decided there was forty or more birds, then looked higher and found a cloud of them over the By-Pass. Maybe fifty, let's say.....no, let's move on as watching the birds I have just walked into a youthful oak tree and knocked my cap off. Who put that there at the side off the pathway? Returning the branches to where they belonged I moved on, always looking for a better picture than the one shown, amazed that these birds kept going without any break. They appeared not to contact one another, no two chased one another, they were all happily running about madly in the sky, I think just having fun! Imagine coming all the way from Central Africa to cavort in southern England? Would you?

 
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