And they fertilise as they go along. Once played cricket on a field where sheep had been allowed to graze. I was fielding at turd man. Nice weather, don't need me coat.
I'm well aware of Mick Box of Uriah Heep fame. Don't know if he ever played cricket, but do they play cricket in Denmark? The reason I ask is, and this is true, I've just read about a Danish bloke whose name is Knakkergaard.
When I lived in Reading, in the seventies, there was a guy who rented out old and very used cars. The name of his company was U Hire A Heap.
A week into a period of rain every day. Lawn and fields greening up as we speak. I'm sure I can hear the grass slurping. No torrential rain. A few downpours, but usually steady heavy drizzle. Ideal for getting everything wet.
Well, 13 weeks after having those stitches in my leg, I've finally been signed off from the wound clinic. Never had a cut take so long to heal. Still got quite a bit of scar tissue around it and on the tendon on the outside of the ankle, but all good. To be fair, I never had any pain with it, nor did it stop me doing anything, just wouldn't heal.
Glad you’re in the mend., How are you and your daughter coping with the animals in this heat Remote? My local Parkrun is advising against taking dogs tomorrow so it must be tough on your small holding. Hope you have plenty of shade.
Daughter and partner were at royal Cheshire show for 3 days. Back for a day and off to N Yorkshire for a wedding. Muggins is on animal duty. Tractor work to be done but I'm dawned if I'm going to sit in a greenhouse on wheels in this heat. Plenty of shade in the fields, but their water intake has gone through the roof. The sheep were sheared last weekend so they'll be cooler. Hope they stay in the shade and don't get sunburned. Lots of farmers making hay while the sun shines. Literally.
Arrived in deepest Bucks on Thursday with 3 weeks of chilling, peace and quiet, and doing nothing other than what I want. Then reality struck. Turned into the access road to the cottage and there were 3 Gas Board vans, a mini digger and 6 orange suited utility workers. They'd dug up one side of the driveway and barriered the 3 foot deep trench leaving a very narrow passage. The wife screamed every time the PDC went off as we crawled about 50 yards through the narrow gap left in the private road to reach the cottage. Parked up and went to have a word with the orange suits. Seems they had an obligation to upgrade the gas services to these remote properties from the old metal/cast iron pipework to the new yellow polypropylene stuff we now see installed everywhere. Very nice chaps to be honest (for Englishmen anyway), and they apologised for the disruption. I asked them how long they'd be as I didn't expect an excavator, Bomag roller and half a dozen orange suits outside my window for the next 3 weeks. They assured me they'd finish creating the access by close of play Friday (yesterday), and the new service team would drop in the new pipework on Monday. Jointing and purging the new main on Tuesday with the reinstatement team on Wednesday to backfill and finish up. This may all be irrelevent to most on here, but I expected 3 weeks of chilling in the cottage gardens when I left home last Thursday, not a bloody Gas Board convention! I'll post up the progress early next week - it's far more interesting than the Club World Cup anyway.
It is annoying when a period of R & R is disrupted. You can understand why it needs doing. They should do it on someone else's time though. Hopefully it doesn't detract too much for you Sparkey. And never mind the Club World Cup, the Lions played their first game down under today.
Been in the middle of France since last Monday. Beautiful area, very agricultural with the farmers cutting their hay. Might have been a few Wurzels on the combine harvesters. They must be hoping for some rain in the next few weeks so they get at least another cut. Loads of sunflower growing fields everywhere. Product used mainly for oil. So quiet, apart from visits to larger towns so few cars around and you can drive for miles without seeing a single person. Hardly any new builds in recent years. Many properties ancient with mostly shuttered windows to keep the heat out. It has been feckin' hot. Car thermometer said 39 degrees at one point today. That's just over 100 degrees in old money. It is an absolutely vast country. How the Germans had the man power and equipment to conquer it I don't know? They could dump many thousands of immigrants here and no one would notice. Compared to the UK the roads are kept in superb condition. Visited some beautiful little riverside towns. Not as many bars and cafes as I expected but I suppose the relatively low population accounts for that. We did a tour of the Hennessy factory in Cognac on Wenesday. Absolutely brilliant with some sampling at the end. I think we were supposed to spit. Bu££er that, I'm a swallower. Most expensive bottle of cognac for sale, 60,000 euros. Thankfully my credit card limit is nowhere near that. Went to replenish rehydrating supplies today at a plush supermarket in Ruffec. Shop called L'Eclerc. The boy has done well since we saw Monsieur L'Eclerc on 'Allo 'Allo. I turned down the opportunity of spending 450 euros on a bottle of vin rouge. Been a brilliant week. Back to lovely Bridgend on Monday.
I'm sure you have been well looked after by your host and hostess this week. Did you manage time out to visit our farming friends?
All quiet here yesterday (Saturday) - bliss. Red Kites wheeling overhead, squirrels in the garden pinching fruit from the raised strawberry and rasperry beds, and a multitude of wild birds from wagtails, green woodies, through to jays foraging on the lawns and amongst the shrubs. This morning (Sunday) at 8.00 am an orange suit driving a pickup came up the private road just serving the two properties - this cottage and the "Big House". I thought, here we go. He had to do a 3 point turn because it's a dead end. He stopped just down from me and parked up completely blocking the access. Now I don't get in a temper very often so I thought I'd have a quiet word. Turns out the orange suit was a very nice guy who had only been sent to take photographs of the works so far and to change the batteries on the traffic control lights on the lane outside. He offered to move find somewhere else to park up but he'd only be about half an hour or so. I told him no problem as I wasn't going anywhere this morning, and my pal and wife from the big house are currently in Portugal. He's long gone now and all's well as I sit in the garden after a nice breakfast. Peace.............at least until the orange suits return in the morning.
Got to say I thought the sunflowers were actually cattle feed! Also the Germans were able to conquer and hold coz 50% of the country were Fascist and were happy to be a German colony!
Ironically the German supporting French (Vichy) were based in central and southern France, miles away from what was the German border. There was, as we know, formidable resistance to the sausage eating krauts and were plane crew to survive plane crashes, the area was so vast and sparsely populated that the crews were often taken in by the resistance and spirited away to Spain or Switzerland. See Great Escape, Secret Army and 'Allo 'Allo. As for sunflower seed use we have been told it is crushed to oil for private and commercial use. Yes some is used for animal food but this is a much smaller percentage of the total crop. There are huge numbers of fields where wheat and grass are being cut, much of this to provide cattle food for later in the year. An unusually hi brow discussion for this forum on a Sunday night.
