Four-and-Twenty Blackbirds.....

Disaster, we've been robbed!

Turns out the local bird population has something of a penchant for spring wheat.
The initial suspects were the pigeons:

However they are probably too plump to fly already so had minimal impact.

The local magpies did seem to be exhibiting some quite lustrous plumage:

I wonder whether that's the effect of a high-protein diet.....?

Real-bread is still something of a niche pursuit:

"I wonder what this token netting is supposed to do?"

But the real culprit is thought to be:

Turns out blackbirds are considerably more effective at reverse-dibbing than humans are at dibbing, but then I suppose they have had a lot more practice.
Anyhow maybe kharma is in evidence - perhaps birds can be coeliacs too?

At least I have plenty of grain left and it's hopefully not too late in the season to replant....this time with a rigorously enforced no-fly zone ;-)

Suddenly everyone wants in on the act...

We now have a scarecrow:

(eccentricity runs in the family it turns out ;-)

An unfortunate omission.....

So it turns out I've already angered the powers that be by omitting to mention Number 2 dibber in dispatches: to make amends here's a brief thankyou to my mother without whom none of the above would have gotten into the ground - let alone out-of.

In the beginning......

A long-standing fondness for Walden and its descriptions of the simple pleasures of kneading bread led me to De Agricultura.  Several sacrificial buns later, I was hooked and there began my mild obsession with bread-making.  Then The Real Bread Campaign started this initiative, and having convinced my long-suffering parents to donate a corner of their front lawn, this project began.
So last weekend, roughly coinciding with the equinox as it happens (no trees were hugged during this undertaking), I planted what I hope to be some spring wheat.  Well I say I did it, I had more than a little help: they say manual labour is hard to find these days and they're not wrong, I had to make do with this passing PhD:

Anyway the dibbing went rather well and the rest of the family is now on pidgeon-watch all that remains to be seen is will it grow......