Summary
David catches up with Esme at Meadow Farm, pleased to hear she’s settling into Ambridge life, having watched the Christmas lights switch-on and been introduced to half the village by Akram. Esme’s getting to grips with looking after her cows too, but with finances still tight she’s keen to get David’s advice on sourcing extra silage. Later, Ben and David look forward to Shula joining the family for Christmas, before Esme phones and David has an idea to help raise money for the silage: getting Josh to sell some old farm machinery that’s lying in one of Esme’s barns. But when they look at what’s there they’re not hopeful it will raise much, though Ben takes some pictures anyway. The farmer Esme is talking to is based in South Wales and she thinks her best bet of getting a good deal on the silage is to go and see him. Ben suggests Josh could go with her and catch his girlfriend Nina, who’s playing a gig in Cardiff, at the same time.
Grateful Clarrie and Eddie have brought Pat some treats after she helped with last week’s turkey plucking. They compare notes on what a hard year it’s been, but look forward to a new farming year, and the Christmas tractor run. Later though, Clarrie wonders to Eddie if Pat’s okay, as she seemed a bit off-colour. Eddie’s more interested in getting Clarrie to make him a turkey costume he can wear at the Christmas market on Wednesday, but Clarrie tells him there’s no chance.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.2 | Marianne has not the heart to tell Eleanor how worried she is by the lack of poetry in Edward's soul. |
| 0:14.7 | Tamzing Greg brings Jane Austen's work to life with pride and prejudice and sense and sensibility. |
| 0:20.6 | Reports soon follow that Mr Bingley is very agreeable. |
| 0:24.4 | And Julie Andrews narrates a new series, Jane Austen Stories. |
| 0:28.9 | You take delight in vexing me. |
| 0:30.9 | You have no compassion on my poor nerves. |
| 0:33.7 | Celebrate Jane Austen. |
| 0:35.3 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:37.7 | You're listening to Sunday's episode of The Archers from BBC Radio 4. Come on. Good girls. That's the way. afternoon is mate David just finished milking yeah I'll have them all back in the barn before dark |
| 1:12.3 | just well not long before Oh, David. Just finished milking. Yeah. I'll have them all back in the barn before dark. Just? |
| 1:13.7 | Well, not long before the December solstice. And then you'll notice the day's getting longer. |
| 1:18.8 | True. Although I don't want to rush the next few weeks away. I love seeing the Christmas trees around the village. |
| 1:24.4 | Yeah, the turning on of the Ambridge Christmas lights always feels like the real start of Christmas to me. Yeah. Oh, I'm glad I made it down to the green. I was worried I wouldn't know many people, but by the end, Akram had introduced me to half the village. Which is both a blessing and a curse. I saw that you'd been coloured by Derek Fletcher at one point. Yeah, he was offering to give me a rendition of Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer on spoons. |
| 1:48.5 | His party piece, I hear. |
| 1:50.9 | Oh, thankfully Pat Archer came to the rescue. |
| 1:53.7 | My dad always called her The Fremidable Woman. |
| 1:56.5 | Oh, and she still is. |
| 1:58.3 | She wanted to know how I was getting on and offered to have a chat with me about farming. |
| 2:02.2 | Well, I'd take her up on that. |
| 2:04.0 | Bridge Farm have had their fair share of challenges over the years, |
| 2:07.8 | especially being such pioneers in organic farming. |
... |
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