It has been a blistering hot day today - yesterday, we went to the Bicester hunts fun day on the next door neighbours farm, they had tug of war over the river, starting with the Young Farmer teams and then the old farts from the Bicester hunt, North v South, we are in the northern part of the country and Doug was anchor man - the Southern team had obviously been practising because they actually looked like a team and had a great rhythm, they won the first pull easily, they then swapped sides and Doug's team won, the South won the toss and wanted to pull from the 'easy' side, anyway, to cut a long story short the Northern side really 'dug' in - (excuse the pun) and Doug refused to budge, winning the pull, which went on for ages, and pulling the soft southerners into the river, Very exciting - Doug was 'man of the match' but is somewhat sore today. There was also hound racing where you had a chance to bid for a hound and if it won its race you won a nice wadge of cash - I won £123 on 'Goldfinch', but then lost £40 of it on 'Laughter' who lived up to his name and didn't take it very seriously at all. There was then a disco and lamb roast, it went on into the night and was great fun.
Today we went out for lunch with my parents, they are both in good spirits although Mum's balance isn't very good at all and she was very wobbly. Unfortunately it is only a matter of time before she has a fall. She seems happy enough and still manages to do the garden which looks lovely.
We have been really busy with the shepherd hut lately, but last nights guests left without paying, I'm sure they didn't mean to but I have left a message on their answering machine and they haven't got back yet. The bounders! I will have to send the knee cap boys around if I don't hear from them soon...