Happy to see the billowing wheat fields

The combines have been busy and the wheat and barley fields have nearly been harvested in the fields around here. We have had brief rain showers in the last two days but before that a long dry spell. I think in other parts of the country conditions have been more difficult with more  frequent localised rain affecting the harvesting.  

The war in Ukraine is affecting global production and distribution of grain. And China's grain and rice production has been badly affected by the weather. In some parts there have been wild fires and in others, especially the grain growing regions further north, there have been unprecedented floods. We all know why.

I am reading the novel The Good Earth by American writer Pearl Buck (first published in 1931) where weather-induced famine is a central part of the plot. Pearl Buck spent much of her early life in China (her parents were missionaries) and she writes with great knowledge and insight. She won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1938 but she is not a writer we hear about much these days.

Here is a traditional Chinese tune played on the Erhu - a two stringed instrument. The Erhu is the most expressive of instruments but this piece is played in an upbeat tempo to convey the delight of the sight of ripening wheat fields.