Yesterday, we went to Caroline Bailey's 50th birthday lunch at The George, Great Oxendon - there was a great crowd there and it went until well past dark. We got home at around 7 pm and there was a strange car in the yard - We were horrified to find that it was our Shepherd hut guests a day early!! It was like a Basil Fawlty scene where we were dashing around like headless chickens trying to make the hut habitable. They were a lovely Northern couple and didn't mind at all - they said it was their fault, and they had got the date wrong, I'm not sure whether they were just being kind though. Anyway, they had their first night in the hut and it was minus 5, we felt somewhat guilty all snug in our aga warmed house, but this morning when they emerged, they said it was wonderful - they had been woken up by a woodpecker tapping at the window, which delighted them. They are supposed to be staying another two nights.

This morning Lucy was in - she rode Dream, Doug on Harry and I (rather bravely I think) rode Frog - oddly enough she was a delight and gave me a really good feel. As I rode along it was difficult not to look at the different landmarks - where she dumped Georgie, backed into the ditch with Doug, leaped four foot in the air bucking with Amy etc etc. However, she seems to have grown up and is really enjoying her work - At this stage I am delighted with her, but no doubt it will all change when she has a 'ginger moment' and unships me.

Yes, the aga is working!! It's hard to believe it was made in 1948 - and is working perfectly. Doug is so excited by it, as he was rather worried when he bought it back and it looked like a heap of scrap metal. He couldn't work out how it actually works and was fascinated by the mechanics behind it. Apparently he used to have an aga at Woodlands, his home farm in outback Australia - astonishing to think that the English settlers took them across the world. Sadly, but understandably, the aga at Woodlands just had to go as it was so hot.