Saturday morning we had arranged to visit our friend Bruce. He has a huge farm over in Chichester which was a dairy farm for many years (as in his grandfather, father and him for years) milking several hundred cattle. Within the last 10 years or so they have ceased to have any cattle at all and the land is now used for horses mostly and Bruce earns his money from contract work on surrounding farm land. Aside from wanting to see him as it’s been far too long we also wanted to pick his brains about our future plans and ask if he could find a spot for Willow while she is SORN. The tax runs out at the end of this month and we’ll not sell her as we may well still live in her at some point (plus we’re emotionally attached to her now anyway so if we don’t need to sell her we won’t) but can’t afford to have her taxed and insured aswell as my car.
Bruce’s labrador had 10 puppies 5 weeks ago and very tragically died shortly afterwards so there are 10 gorgeous pups there which meant we didn’t see Davies and Scarlett really. When I finally went to extract Scarlett to leave she was underneath all ten of them with such a look of delight on her face – Tarly-heaven 🙂
Davies got to drive a tractor sat on Bruce’s lap – Bruce proclaimed him ‘a natural’ and I have to admit it felt good to be back on some land with space. I realise every so often just how much we have learnt this year when not only can I follow a conversation about farming I can actually contribute to it aswell. It’s funny to watch programmes like Countryfile now and feel they are being dumbed down for an uneducated audience. Clearly there is still so much to learn and we have really just scratched the surface but all four of us agree we are in the right place when at an environment like Bruce’s farm.
We stayed there longer than planned, which seems to be a bit of a habit of ours everywhere really and one day I will factor in that to our timekeeping arrangements but for now we just run late ;). It’s lovely to have so many people keen to see us and offering hospitality here, there and everywhere but it does make for a rather frantic and rushed feeling to every day, all with the spectre of the business plan to do looming large in the background. Oh and my Mum hassling me to go and visit my Granny!
We left Bruce and drove along to Broadwater where we’d arranged to meet Caz and boys. We parked up and nipped into the CoOp for food supplies which we took with us and met them in the graveyard behind the large church there. It’s a lovely little green space sort of secreted away which Caz’s Dad has been in charge of looking after for about 20 years so she knows well. It is not longer an active graveyard (sure that’s the wrong word but I know what I mean!) and although there are still headstones they are so old there is no tended graves anymore. The kids went off to play while we talked at each other rapidly to try and catch up on 10 months worth of news in two families where life is ever changing even more than in most lives.
Another friend, Debs, came along for a quick hello before heading off to the parish hall across the road where Caz’ brother was doing a talk and slide show of his adventure cycling from the UK to China last year. Initially we’d all planned to go too but decided the kids were too excited with seeing each other to ask them to sit still and listen and we all had too much to tell each other to sit still and listen so we’d be better off in the churchyard.
Eventually we all got cold and thirsty so we sneaked in to the hall and sat downstairs. Caz’ Dad brought us down some tea and very fancy cupcakes and the kids all played with the toddler toys there for church playgroups. Very funny to see the 9 and 11 year olds with chunky traintracks and play food using them to work in their rather more advanced play.
The talk ended and Debs came back down to join us, then her husband Jez and son Alex also arrived so the kids extended their game to include Alex and we caught up with Debs and Jez. We finally all parted company at about 630pm when we got kicked out of the parish hall, a bit like one of our parties!
We came home and arrived just before Mum, then Dad and I walked up the road to the fish and chip shop for dinner which was nice but overpackaged and very expensive.
I did some reading online and in a book about goats we’ve borrowed from the library and made notes to talk about with Ady.
Sunday We’d arranged to see Mike and Rose – our not swinger friends. We went over for a pre-lunch walk with the dogs across the downs for just over an hour and then went back for a cup of tea. Mike was at home preparing lunch – soup and bread and pineapple upside down pudding, while also cooking their Christmas pudding.
Much catching up and answering their questions over lunch and then coffee. We arranged another couple of getting togethers with them closer to Christmas (which I’ve finally concluded is happening regardless of whether I acknowledge it or not!) and left there around 5pm.
Back at home Ady and I did loads of talking through business plan stuff and then downloaded loads of pdfs about crofting, grants and payments, conservation and the recent history of Rum. Interesting reading but all very hard to process at once. Ady fed the kids and they went to bed and then we had a later snack for dinner although we didn’t manage to eat together as Scarlett was up and down wanting me to sit with her while she fell asleep.