JUNE - "The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new." Socrates
Lilac June has always been a busy month in our family with multiple birthdays and summer crops to be harvested. I have clear memories of going along with my dad to inspect fields of peas and beans. A little later, I would be back there with him, collecting the hard-earned tickets from the gangs of people employed to pick the crops and weigh them. Money changed hands and, in the evening, back in Dad's office, everything had to balance. This is now simplified by the use of pea harvesters across the arable lands of Britain. Efficiency? Yes! But I will never forget those summer days when the low rumble of conversation matched the buzzing of the insects - and raucous laughter rang out across the generous fields of Lincolnshire, rivalling the rooks. The strawberries are ripening there too - faster than they can be picked so that the birds and the elements take their toll. The year I sat my final school exams, I picked strawberries on local fruit farms and found the basket took a very lon
