We have had the top part of our lane down so everyone who has gone up and down on the giant bumps will be pleased to know that it is flat, for a while anyway. It was a bit like being on the Plymouth Roscoff ferry on a bad night but now it is most certainly the Macclesfield canal. Two enormous tractors tipped up, the wheels were taller than me asnd I am five foot ten. They grind up the existing surface and then put it down gain and compact it. That’s the cheap version. In the expensive version they put cement in as well but that costs lots of thousands and as our neighbours wouldn’t cough up, we went for the cheap option. Our banks and hedges are growing like mad so the lane is getting arrower and narrower, it’s only foxgloves and ferns plus lots of little wild strawberries hidden away, but people do worry about scratching their cars. Why live in Devon which is full of little leafy lanes if paintwork is so important.
Meanwhile we are getting ready to go to a show in Brittany. We are taking over a stud male and a girl we have sold plus three littles ones for the show ring and we are coming back with a stud male who has been in France plus all the booze for the party in July. Normally we take the overnight ferry but there is no room for freight as it is stuffed with holidaymakers so we have to go in the afternoon instead. I am looking forward to a couple of days off without the hellish hassle of getting our development down the road finished. The painters are now in and seem very quick, clean and efficient. We spent some of yesterday cleaning all the windows of plaster etc before they are stained. Bernard, who makes fantastic hay, came down with his big tractor and moved the oil tank on to its plinth and took four one ton bags of stone off the flatbed for us, phew. We need a big machine like that. We brought another load of rubbish up to the farm and chucked it into the skip which is filling up alarmingly fast.
Then an old schoolfriend turned up. Great astonishment all round as I haven’t seen Penny for years. She didn’t come to the reunion at Sidcot as she doesn’t like large gatherings. We had a cup of tea and a gossip and hopefully they will return in September for a longer session.