Farm on the M62: The rumble across the Channel - Jill Thorp

The little guy returned home with tales of daredevil roller coaster rides, hours spent in an outdoor swimming pool and much to my dismay, a mass brawl. The school trip to Paris was a great success although no where near long enough and the food, according to his discerning taste buds was pretty uninspiring. The parents of the children on the trip had been made aware of an incident that had occurred and I’d dreaded the email stating that the little guy had been involved or worse, had been the instigator. Thankfully no names were mentioned and it was made clear there would be no repercussions and therefore the matter was closed.

He arrived back at my Mum’s whilst we were busy packing up at the Great Yorkshire Show and being so tired, was already in bed when we landed home. After wading through his bag of completely clean untouched clothes the following morning it became clear he had not bothered changing and had spent the four days away in the same clothes. After he recited every dull meal and joke that was told, every minute of the long coach trip and journey across the Channel we finally got round to the nitty gritty of the big incident that happened whilst the kids were watching England play Argentina on a large projector screen. Apparently some rather heated exchanges had taken place between teachers from other schools that were staying at the outdoor activity centre. According to the little guy, the exchanges involved some teachers getting pushed, including his and of course he’d taken this as a green light to get involved. It’s hard to know just how much of a rumble went down, his story no doubt grew with every excited retelling but whatever happened out there, it proved to be the highlight of his trip!

Sheep are starting to arrive home as their summer grazing is completely burnt off. Our green and lush countryside is anything but as months of hot, dry weather has parched the land, leaving it crisp and brown. Any hopes of a second cut of grass are dwindling fast as the much needed rain refuses to make an appearance. There’s not much grass at home to speak of but it certainly looks greener than most of the low lying land the ewes and lambs have been on. The Leicester girls are also back, their lambs weaned and quite unfazed by the separation. I’ll be starting the difficult process of sorting through who’s staying and who’s going. A sale at Gisburn next weekend will hopefully see quite a few homebred shearlings find new postcodes, with lambs following in the coming weeks. Before we know it the big tup sales will be here and thoughts will turn towards lambing time and the cycle will begin again. For now we’ll enjoy the rest of the agricultural shows, the little guy will fill his face with cheesy chips and hopefully we’ll get a rosette or two with the Leicesters. More Mountain bike action will leave my nerves in shreds as he tears down the slopes and jumps and somewhere in and amongst we’ll hopefully make it to the seaside for a much needed break before the weather turns!