instead of a whole load of letters on a blog post, but a quick one and then I’ll be off (alarm being set for 4am 😯 )
Today we had a long standing, weather permitting arrangement with Mike and Rose (the not swingers) to walk across the downs to Coombes Farm, the localish farm that does lambing during March and April. We’ve been the last 3 or 4 years and I am always slightly torn between awe at new life starting and a slight feeling of finding the animals being watched by such large, noisy crowds at such a time of heightened anxiety a bit offensive. Today it was so busy there we didn’t even see anyone to pay money for entrance to though so we did leave nearly a tenner up on that basis ;).
Ady had had a bad night with coughing and was feeling quite rough this morning and not up to the walk so he stayed home. He did drive up (it’s about 4 miles to drive by road, only about 15 minutes along twisty, turning roads) to meet us there and bring picnic lunch for us though, before driving home again with a view to taking along anyone who wasn’t up to the walk back.
So Davies, Scarlett and I drove up to Mike and Rose’s, left my car there and we headed off with Mike, Rose, Mike’s daughter Chloe (who is 13 and mostly lives with her Mum but has been staying with M&R for the last week) and their two dogs, Buffy and Bozzle. The walk there was 90 minutes, partially along some of the South Downs Way, up very steep hills and down equally steep ones but it was stunning scenery with rolling hills and panoramic sea views and it was gorgeously warm and sunny.
Scarlett was in her element, being allowed to lead one or other dog the whole way and I suspect she did about 1 and a half times the walk the rest of us did thanks to the running ahead and then back to us again. She’d brought her rucksack and spotter books and was doing lots of spotter birds, bugs and butterflies along the way and regaling us with animal facts. Chloe is a really lovely girl and she spent quite a bit of time walking the dogs with Scarlett and chatting. Davies and I walked together with Mike and Rose and had some interesting conversations about what traits he and Scarlett get from Ady or I aswell as talking to Mike about films, DS games and Star Wars.
We arrived at the farm at 1230 and Ady pulled into the car park very shortly after we got there, bringing a very welcome bottle of chilled cider each for Mike, Rose and I, along with hot water, tea bags and milk to freshly brew mugs of tea each too, which was a treat we’d not have got it we’d had to carry it all the way in the rucksack. We all picnicked and chatted then Ady stayed with the dogs while the rest of us went into the farm.
We saw a calf born and a lamb born, the kids got to cuddle and play with some of the orphaned lambs. I’d not seen a cow given birth before so that was lovely :). It was really busy there and they had two tractors running doing tractor rides, which I guess accounted for there being no one taking admission money. It’s gotten even more commercial than last year though and I dislike the way there is no farmer around at all keeping an eye on the animals birthing and ensuring they are doing okay or indeed talking to the visitors about the animals. A very different experience, and I guess a different sort of business enterprise to the farm we visited a few weeks ago where I did my lookerer training where the shepherd aimed to be present, not intervening unless necessary for every single birth and was there with anecdotes about each animal from previous years aswell as being happy to answer questions and talk to us about what was going on.
We rejoined Ady at the car, Davies toyed with the idea of going home with him but then decided he wanted to walk back with us so back we went, in a shorter route that was harder on account of having far more steep up and down hill bits. One particular hill was a two rest stop challenge :). I reckon it was between 5 and 6 miles of fairly hard going walking so am proud of everyone for doing it so well. Scarlett was still bouncing with energy at the end – as long as she is not too hot or cold, and particularly when she has dogs to distract her she could walk for miles. Davies is less keen but aslong as he is distracted with interesting conversation he can also walk a good long way.
We arrived back at Mike and Rose’s and while Chloe disappeared to get a laptop fix, Mike went to watch the pre match fanfare (his team Spurs played Ady’s team Pompey in the semi final cup match this afternoon), Rose, Davies, Scarlett and I sat in their lovely garden next to the pond drinking tea and eating jaffa cakes to restore energy levels :). We then drove back home to find Ady had got dinner on and was tending to it in various breaks in the match (half time, full time, half time of extra time, full time proper – it’s not just a game of two halves…). Davies and Scarlett went off to play in Davies’ bedroom, I sat with Ady and kept half an eye on the match so I knew which sort of noises to make (celebratory, sympathetic, ref is a wanker, that sort of thing).
Dinner was lovely, we had gammon in coke followed by Mars bar ice creams and talked about something really interesting which now totally escapes me (which is annoying, the children had both said how they enjoy it when we talk over dinner so we did and it was a really good fourway conversation, I just don’t recall what about). Then I read some more ‘I was a rat’ while a bath was running, the children went to bed (but not to sleep – argh!) and Ady and I had baths and watched the final of Masterchef Australia. We have LOVED this show and I spent much of the last show in tears as it’s been a really sentimental show with the final 20 contestants in the competition for 3 months – sort of Apprentice meets Big Brother meets Masterchef UK. My favourite contestant from day one won the show which was a total surprise as I never thought they had a real chance and their winning acceptance speech and being reunited with their family was just so touching. Loved it :).
Tomorrow we’re off on another two walks – I may be taking two weeks off of swimming prior to my sponsored challenge but I’m certainly not shirking exercise generally…. the first starts at 5am tomorrow!