I had a wasted morning going to see some advertised 'Micro' Pigs  - all the way to Cricklade, as I thought that some cute little piggies in the orchard would be really rather nice BUT these I looked at were ugly long snouted critters and not even remotely 'micro' or cute. Grrrr!  I used to breed Vietnamese pot bellied pigs and at one stage had ten breeding sows, the piglets (at £100 each) paid for all my racehorses and racing costs and they were not only very lucrative, but they were really nice cute looking piggies as I was quite fussy about what I bred from - It is clear that now everyone has jumped on the 'micro' pig bandwagon and the end result is completely crossbred and has absolutely no consistency.
This afternoon we went to Blakesley show which as ever was great. It is such a lovely country show and brilliantly supported by the local community. You can't go more than 5 yards without bumping into someone you know, and then it would be rude not to pop in to most of the stands for a little refreshment. As usual the end party was in the Heygates stand where we had an annual reunion with quite a few people, and in particular, Adrian Covington who has been with Heygates for 46 years, and worryingly I can remember when he was a young enthusiastic (and slightly annoying!) salesman at the beginning of his career, where he has now seriously climbed the ladder and is now a director.
Tonight I am spending the night in our new shepherd hut. Doug and Dickie have spent the last week doing it up and as we have guests already booked in for the 8th I thought I should test drive it to make sure that all is well. Doug has decided he would rather have a good nights sleep in the house so I will be going solo.....