At the end of each long, tiring but almost always satisfying day, it is lovely to come back to a house and spend some inside time with the dogs and cats. As with the livestock, our pets are totally reliant on us to keep them fed, watered and warm, and of course they take the most comfortable positions in the house as shown by Ben and Buzzard here, fast asleep on one of our sofas. We currently have four dogs: Yeti, our Munsterlander; Buzzard and Dragonfly, our two Gordon Setters; and Firefly, the Irish Setter. The cats, Ben and Nay (both girls – don’t ask!!) are sisters, one black, one a tortoiseshell. There are some vague rumbling-in-our-minds plans to get another Gordon and to breed from her, a plan we had with Dragonfly but that was scuppered by her having a hernia!! On Wednesday we are meeting up with a new breeder from whom we may get a puppy in the autumn!!!! Exciting!!!
Back to our long days... it is, perhaps, not surprising to note that both of us will only vote for politicians who promise to extend the day by at least two, if not four hours. And even then, we feel there is never enough time to do all that we wish both on the smallholding and in the house. Saying such, we still escape to lands and planets far way each day, courtesy of CS Lewis, Mervyn Peake, Robin Hobb, Glenda Larke and others– a diversion from the mud, the poo and the computer - three things that are currently dominating our lives. We read at mealtimes as we couldn't possibly just 'sit' and read any other time – not with all those items on our 'to do' lists!! Happy days!!