Back to work

Son in law Barry enjoys the odd moment of relaxation and will always find the time to play with the children in the pool (extra photo) but he is always a restless soul when here constantly asking what jobs he can do around the property.

He has sorted the bikes having given them all a check-over and oiling, even replacing an inner tube. He has been pestering - constantly - for a ladder so that he can finish off some painting in the stairwell area of the house but have managed to refuse the offer as we don't have a safe ladder set up and are hoping to borrow one in the near future.

However had to give way this afternoon and allow him to mow the horse field outside of the property. Barry is great at any jobs but especially those involving machines but he really comes in to force when it has anything to do with land and forest equipment. He does have the advantage of being involved in the field professionally but not with such antiquated machinery as mine.

However that doesn't put him off in the slightest, in fact he rises to the challenge. And so it was - took a round or two of the field to work out all the quirks of my 1965 John Deere and why levers cause things to go up instead of down etc.

I left him to it and disappeared back to the house. In the evening I was then horrified to see the result. The first time there have been straight mowing lines on the grass. I hope not too many local farmers passed by while he was in action - with luck they will think it was me.

Angie has been at work this week, again suffering from the trials and tribulations of the rail company not being able to sort out the air conditioning during spells over 30°C on trains with no opening windows. As she doesn't have to be up at 4:45 am tomorrow, this evening she was able to lean back and spend some time with us on the terrace.