Mud, Mud Glorious Mud

Running and piggy antics seem to have take up most of the day today despite my best intentions to get out in the garden.I Met Liz at Furnace Village Hall and did my best to drag legs that appeared to have two or three hard tennis balls lodged in the place where my calves usually are round and about and up and down. This condition is a legacy from Wednesday night (see last entry) and stayed with me for the whole soggy 8 miles but were most obvious on the hilly (up) bits. I was truly scared near the end as Liz began to sprint for it in earnest just as we went through Furnace Quarry until she remembered that we had parked further away than usual and still had 1/2k or so to go.....she also had Ginny pulling her whereas Lucy was flagging (excuses, excuses, I can dredge them up from nowhere).
In order to sooth my legs and render movement tomorrow a vague possibility I eventually got into the bath mid afternoon accompanied by a good book. Halfway through a chapter dedicated to a curious mixture of Christian fundamentalism, pornography and bombers (don't ask) I heard suspicious banging noises from the pig food shed...Yup, Miss Oldest Piglet had done it again, another piggy dash for freedom and food. Linda and I eventually bullied,cajoaled and bribed her back to re-join the other good (and hence probably with a longer life expectancy) piglets and Mrs Pig on the right side of the fence.The pigs being, well, pigs and having done their job well this was a very muddy job and meant another quick dip in the bath and so the afternoon passed away. As Garret is away until Sunday it was left to Toby and me (until he hit himself on the knee with an axe, wooden bit luckily,again an explanation of how this happened exactly is really not necessary or indeed fathomable) to try to barricade the fence against further attempts. Hmmm been there and done that before. ..WATCH THIS SPACE

Piggy Freedom!

The second escape in as many days and the future is suddenly not looking quite so good for the Three Little Pigs and Mrs Pig. Toby and Rosie were met yesterday on their way up the track home from the bus by a bold little pig trotting along on her way down to make her fortune....Rosie was dispatched to get the bucket to shake and foil her Fairy Tale dreams and hence discovered the other escapees standing in the food bin (or what was left of it) munching away. Today I was alerted by a humongous and angry squealing that one piglet had this time tunnelled out in solo bid for food and was attaching the poor decrepit pig nut bin again. Unable to bear the sight of this the others were going mad with jealously and successfully sniped on her. Fifteen frantic bucket shaking, bread roll trail making minutes later and the prisoner is now in with Mr Pig as his was the easiest field to get her into....He's a Happy Mr Pig, especially as we had to bribe him away from the gate by lobbing stale bread buns past him into the field. All very entertaining, especially as I was just back from a very sneezy, itchy (am allergic) riding session and so had on old faded pink dressing gown in preparation for a bath....stunning teamed with long riding boots, the first "appropriate" footwear that came to hand (to foot?).

The wonders of evolution...or some very scared birds.

Today we witnessed the birth of a whole new exciting facet of the Guinea Fowl character.Not something many people can claim I bet. They are in fact homing birds. A talent previously unsuspected and, now I come to think of it not that useful in a group of birds that appears to have forgotten how to fly. They were re housed a couple of weeks ago from the rabbits and guinea pigs run (it is quite big) into a hut in Mr Pigs field. They have spent the intervening time in a small bewildered huddle that moved as one around to peck at grain when the need arouse. Things got more confused for them today when Mr P apparently moved by their plight decided to release them by barging through their wire wall and incidental to the rescue of course, managed to help himself to their grain. We know that he is the guilty party as he has left a Mr P sized hole perfect for identification purposes. The fowl then hot footed (they don't do flying, remember?) it back to their old run which they circled plaintively calling in their inimitable way. It is not really possible to chase them in through the door, nor, as Ginny found out to herd them with the "run and bark" method. So a retreat was effected (in Ginny's case rapidly onto her bed with tail between legs) after tempting rabbit food had been scattered just inside the hut. They do love their rabbit food....and after 20 minutes of so ......Gotcha!

Okay, what else. no skiing today as planned due to fog, boo hoo and then the second attempt to get exercise also partially failed. I took a cycle down to The Loch Fyne Hotel to swim and hence justify our hugely expensive monthly ticket, we could buy a pool for cheaper.This ended in failure as now as well as shutting 2hrs earlier they also shut for lunch...for two hours. The ensuing mental rant saw me all the way home nicely.

More on the car saga:- Turns out the people mentioned yesterday had read all the blog in it's glorious car dissing detail and decided not to go for it. They went to get their deposit back which was duly returned. The manager then told them that they have found £1,200 worth of work needing to be done....we feel so JUSTIFIED in getting rid. I am just so glad that we found out and will not have to forever wonder. Somewhat belatedly I calculated that it has had £6,000 or thereabouts spent on it since last April, luckily not all by us (see last May!). So, anyone else clever enough to track us down...BUYER BEWARE!

PS I am now on Facebook and need to learn to not waste so much time nosing into other peoples lives and photos...sad.

Beware guests leaving very generous tips...no connection with the following of course

My morning's tasks after clearing the table and saying good bye to guests etc always start with feeding the pigs, goats and poultry. the guinea pig and rabbit are left to the children or Garret due to uncontrollable and inconvenient allergies on my part. This morning I found that not only had Mrs Pig and the Three (not so) Little Pigs let themselves out of their field, they had somehow manipulated their trotters to shut the gate behind them..amazing. They had not gone far and were stuffing themselves like...well, pigs, with about a weeks worth of food. Despite such gluttony they were easily lured back home with a shake of the yellow (pig nut) bucket. Mr Pig was in the next field smug in his goodness and virtue. A walk around the fence deepens the mystery. Apologies for casting aspersions on anyone's integrity and honesty will be printed forthwith if more information comes to light.....I shall be interrogating the pigs later once I get a strong enough light bulb.