“Lovely, so lovely this day was. And at Alderlea, wholly pleasant, its paths. Busy, naturally. But as James said at supper, “when the machines work well, and the weather keeps, what more can we ask of the seedtime?” All our red fields have been cultivated, and now much of the grain-land is seeded. A few more days if fine should see the cropping here come to an end.

What has it given them, we wonder of these farmers of ours? Only the satisfaction of seeing their plans worked out on the stirred fields, good as these are? The seeds tucked tidily away in the best seedbeds they could make? Just the sowings and plantings — the be-all and end-all in a way, of our livelihood? Or did they also, as they tended faithfully to the affairs of their calling, hear the delightful bird-tunes threading in, bright and cherry in the mornings? And toward dusk the Evensong, in a manner quite as reverent as that participated in by folks in church pews. 

High and wide is this cathedral’s arched dome. And mellow the light which filters through the stained glass windows over the treetops to the west — Have they remembered as the seeds fell and were covered, tales of old land? Stories of wheat and tares of flour and the grinding of ovens and bread? For the words are old, old as the first seedtime — and very lovely too.

And been happy? And confident that no matter the world’s joys and tribulations, its triumphs and failures, its hopes and distrusts, that seedtimes and harvest will be”

                                                                                                 – Ellen’s diary, June 15th, 1962

Source: https://islandnewspapers.ca/islandora/object/guardian%3A19620615-008