After all that time in an office I wanted to get out in the air today.

I’d planned to go to a local music festival but Martin called and we agreed to take the kids a little further afield. So we headed out in the car with a vague plan in mind. The good thing about Martin’s car is that it’s high enough to see over the hedges and that, with a sudden decision to go a different way, is how we ended up in a field watching a harvesting competition.

I know it doesn’t sound a brilliant day out but a large field, loads of sun and simply sitting and watching some old machinery and teaching the kids about wheat and chaff was all that I was up to. Besides it was all in aid of the Macmillan Cancer Charity so a few pound spent here was all in a good cause.

Lost as this event was outside a small village and behind a large hedge there was hardly anyone was there but that was fine. We got to wander around without large crowds. I guess in a way it was rather like the crowds you would have got at this type of event when this machinery was new, before the widescale use of cars meant that hordes of people moved around the country.

We had a very unhealthy lunch of chips and hot dogs rounded off with candy floss and ice creams. I ended up with a pocketful of wheat we managed to gather up and a much bigger smile than when I started the day.