Our neighbours have just bought some land below us to prevent any more unwanted development. They had to pay a lot of money but we are all very relieved as the vendor has caused all of who live on this lane a lot of grief. Happily we will be able to use the grazing for quite a while until they decide what they are going to do with it. There has been no livestock on it for at least two years so it has gone all tussocky and overgrown. We have put alpacas on to this sort of land before and they do a marvellous job turning it back into proper pasture. We also have new neighbours on the other side of us who are knocking down the existing farmhouse and building a new one. It looks as if we may be able to rent another ungrazed field on that side which will be great as we are always short of grass in the winter.
We are feeling a little the worse for wear after a dinner party last night. I made my own gravadlax using a Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall recipe for the cure and it was very nice, then a casserole and then summer pudding. The purple sprouting that the alpacas ate has sprouted anew and there was enough for all of us at dinner. Not a great harvest considering I spent a considerable time picking off the caterpillars and shouting at them to lay off all summer.