farm and garden (photos on Flickr)
I’ve been saying I’d take Aprilia to Stockley farm for weeks but something has always happened on the Wednesday to stop us and that’s the only week day it’s open. But today the sun was shiney, we had cash (Duke got paid partly in cash just to be sure he had something to keep us going until the latest cheque decides if it wants to be all bouncy or not) and no prior commitements so I told her that if she did her chores and her normals then we would go.
So she worked hard on normals, sat perfectly still for stories, asking inteligent questions here and there and read several pages of desperately boring CVC word based "story" (we still haven’t quite mastered long vowels but I hve plenty of CVC booklets to wade through whilst we wait!) After that she put away all her clean washing and gave me a pile of stuff for the charity shop that she has outgrown. Then she "helped" me plant out the runner beans round the bean frame and gave teh sunflowers a decent burial in the compost bin as the wind had battered them just a bit too hard and snapped every last one of them off below the first set of leaves 
We’ve still got Teddy Bear sunflowers though so I’m hoping they will be sturdy enough. We’ve also got last year’s packet of Giant sunflowers somewhere so I can still have another go.
That brought luchtime very rapidly then we headed off to hte farm. The next 3 hours were spend coo-ing over fluffy little lambs and calves, digging in the sandpit and playing in the play barn. She fed a lamb and helped the farm hands feed the pigs which was a bit of a bonus as we just happened to be walking past the pen at feeding time so were invited to come and help. All in all a very pleasant way to spend the afternoon.
When we got home I had a slightly surreal conversation on the phone with Dad who was asking if I’d managed to fix the SatNav. Last time they borrowed it they said it stopped talking to them which was rather odd as it talked to me all the way too and from Jax and Tim’s at the weekend perfectly happily. On further questioning he said that it wasn’t that it wasn’t saying anything at all, just that all it kept saying was "Turn around when possible" so they carried on as it was still showing the road they were on so it must have been the right route. Now, is it me or if your navigation tool told you to turn around would you keep going regardless or actually turn round????? Sigh, I suppose it’s all those years of arguing over maps, must hve done some permenant damage to the part of the brain that responds to verbal directions 
Oh I loved it there
Although the tractor rides in was always my most favourite bit!
Comment by Nic — April 25, 2007 @ 7:24 pm
Well, we’d know where we were on the map, so would know if the voices were getting it wrong
Comment by DaddyBean — April 25, 2007 @ 7:54 pm
would you beleive its the first time we’ve made it there Nic! We loved the tractor rides too but it was ***** breezy. Feeding a little lamb on my lap was my fave bit but then I’m a soppy sod.
Daddy Bean, I am treating your comment with the contempt it deserves…. but I’d still like to know how they had a SatNav device AND a set of directions off the AA and STILL managed to get lost and yet my mother pokes fun at *my* sense of direction any chance she gets…… at least I know what “turn around when possible” means
Comment by Administrator — April 25, 2007 @ 8:32 pm
our sunflowers having a RIP moment! not quite brave enough to put runners out yet - and they’re not quite big enough either.
we [including me] should do ourselves gardening blogs to link to!
Comment by HelenHaricot — April 25, 2007 @ 11:26 pm
I think you need to send it off to be repaired. Your dad, not the satnav.
Comment by Tim — April 27, 2007 @ 12:37 am
actually he’s booked in for an overhaul in September but that’s only for his knees, maybe once he’s off the loopy painkillers his brain will fire on all cylinders again though…. not sure what mother’s excuse is though!
Comment by Administrator — April 27, 2007 @ 8:38 am