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My relaxation journey started way back in April of this year when @LuxuryHideaways was the custodian of the Farmers of the UK twitter account. Caroline and her husband Ross gave us a week long insight into their business and the farm they run in Angus just north of Dundee, the city of discovery. Towards the end of the week they ran a competition, simply re-tweet their tweet and a winner would be drawn at random at the end of the week. In for a penny... 

With heavy heart I have to report that truly shocking and heart-breaking news continues to bleed out of Ukraine. On the 17th July a missile was fired at civilian flight MH17 bringing it down inside the conflict region of eastern Ukraine. All 298 passengers and flight crew including 80 children on board perished. I don’t even know where to begin with this, as a father with young children I am particularly sensitive the images of children’s belongings... 

I’ve been meaning to sit down and write this blog on numerous occasions over the last couple of months. But as ever for this time of year shearing has taken over my life for these past few months, and has left me soaking in a hot bath trying to loosen up before the next day, obviously this is after a couple of pints in whichever pub we happen to be passing on our way home. Every year around the beginning of May I’m waiting for the phone to... 

Well to date the mixture of sun and rain we have had has been great for the Miscanthus and it is all looking very well, in fact it stands out as a sea of vibrant green amongst the golden corn fields. The areas that we were not able to cut due to the ground being too wet to hold the cutters are now continuing to grow at the same rate as the rest of the field, with the new cane growing up through last year’s crop. This leads me on to this month’s... 

Every year seems to be different when it comes to the challenges that face our cereal crops. 2012 was a difficult year disease wise, notably for Yellow Rust, Septoria & Fusarium Ear Blight. A wheat crop showing Fusarium graminearum 2013 threw up different problems, not so much with disease but a shortened grain filling period and high temperatures. For crops to reach their full potential they need as much disease free leaf area to capture the...