Scrumping!

Well, not really, as the plum tree belongs to Mary's grandparents!

A lovely day spent with Mary, Alex and their parents. We started at the farm, then moved on to have a look at a prospective nursery for Mary. It was lovely and Mary got stuck in playing with pretty much everything on offer! Rachel now has to decide between this one and one she visited in the week.

Then we drove to the fields they own about 20 mins away, where they have sheep. The sheep had escaped and along with another farmer's sheep, had congregated in a field inbetween the two flocks. As entertaining as ' One Man and His Dog ' is, it's not as entertaining as ' One Man and His Wife ' !! Credit where it's due though, they managed to get all the sheep back to their field ... With me on child minding duty. At first Alex slept so I only had Mary to run about with, following her parents incase we were needed. When instructed to turn the sheep left, I put Mary in a safe place and waited for the flock to appear. They had other ideas and set off in another direction! So, I turned back to Mary and my heart leapt into my mouth - she had berry juice all round her mouth!! ( Oh my god, oh my god oh my god what has she eaten ..... Stay calm, don't scream ... ) " Mary love, what have you been eating? "

" Blackberries! " she replied with a cheeky grin. Thank goodness she was right. I didn't have chance to talk with her about other berries, but discussed it with her parents who are aware of it and will work on discouraging her from eating wild berries without asking first.

We then off-roaded in Rachel's Vauxhall Astra to the sheep, now in the correct field, where I entertained the kids, fed them bananas and Bourbons, and helped Mary when she suddenly announced she needed a poo. " Grass on my bum " she complained, as I held her too low to the ground!! ( Their mum and dad were busy treating the sheep against flies and trimming their feet ).

Alex ended up wearing quite a lot of the biscuit and banana on his face and I wish I'd had time to photograph him, but it was getting late and we were to-ing and fro-ing with fencing stuff to stop a repeat performance of the day by this time.

Once all secure, we returned home, where Sav was waiting to whisk me off to a local Indian restaurant where we were meeting his mum and dad for dinner. I had no clothes to change into, so wiped off smudges of poo ( sheep's that is! ) and dribbles of banana and biscuits from my trousers with some wet wipes we had in the car for just such emergencies!

Am now full and tired, but happy!!

Sorry that was a long one today - makes up for not blipping for a couple of days!