tractors and terrace

Vintage tractor rally today met for lunch - pie and peas, in the stackyard. There were 24 tractors all in various stages of renovation and some needing a bit of assistance to get under way again. Great to see them chugging along the narrow Wolds lanes. Some had come from York (about 20 miles away) but most were local from the little villages nestling in the Wolds. This rally is an annual event about this time every year and is in memory of a local vintage tractor enthusiast whose name escapes me - apologies! The tractors parked outside our barn so we had a brilliant viewpoint hanging over the barn door just behind this yellow Ford tractor. There was a lot of revving up (not unlike the Grand Prix on t.v!) and a lasting smell of diesel in the air as they all departed in convoy.
I was out very early this morning as the sun was up. I love going out into the garden with a cuppa and my knitting listening to everyone else waking up. There are a lot of swifts on the telephone wires over the inside garden. Hamish has discovered their droppings and just loves to roll in it - he has been showered and blowdried this morning because he was so pongy and here is a pic of the handsome beast looking very white and about to roll again! Anyway back to knitting - here are some little socks and some bigger ones that I have knitted over the past few days - sorry the pics are a bit fuzzy. You can see these socks and others in my little shop on folksy.com - it's called the tin shed.
The terracey bit of the inside garden is looking very pretty as both my father in law and I have been potting. The plan is to plough up a bit of the front garden and get some veg going but we have very little topsoil, the chalk is just under the surface - raised beds may be the answer. I am also going to put in some fruit trees in my hen area. Five fruit trees = an orchard. I have heard somewhere that there is a government initiative to encourage orchard planting as 90% of orchards in England have been ripped out for one reason or another. We have an elderly bramley apple tree in the front garden that looks very in need of tlc - will get John Seymour out to see what he says. I think I will put in some apple and plum trees - the problem will be getting a hole big enough in the chalk - that will be where Mick and the tractor get roped in!
Keep finger and toes crossed for me as I am bidding for an ark on e bay for the hens - the palais de poulet was left on Harris - a new home for hens is needed! Kenny (the remover from Grosebay) said he had never seen so much stuff so I didn't like to ask him to bring the henhouse and then he moved my mother in law..........