WORD OF THE WEEK
WHEN I was a lad I lived for a few years in Monmouthshire and was accustomed to the weekly cattle market and agricultural pursuits such as sheep dog trials but I don’t recall seeing a ploughing competition.
Over subsequent years I lived mainly in the metropolis of Bristol, London and Edinburgh, until coming to Ashbourne.
Since then I have now reconnected with sheep dog trialling but still not managed to get to a ploughing competition, even missing the one in Brailsford this last week, but I have enjoyed seeing the vintage tractors around town in recent weeks.
We are now at the height of the harvest thanksgiving season when focus tends to be all about the gathering In of the harvest but, as ploughing competitions remind us, it is also a time of renewal and preparation for the autumn and winter ahead as well as the harvests of the future.
As we start to gather up the fallen leaves and prepare the garden for the weeks to come it is also good to look around and see signs of renewed life in our community with a return of meetings and activities in so many of the societies, clubs and choirs in and around Ashbourne.
Covid has caused us, for so long, to miss these opportunities to meet together but we can now renew so many friendships and enjoy sharing in the company and interests of others which will bring comfort to many.
In all these preparations and renewals let us be mindful of words from Psalm 71 “You have done great things, O God. Who is like you? You have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again.
“You will increase my honour and comfort me once again.”