Shiny Monday

This was the view from my doorstep at 07:00. Thus I've spent the rest of the day knowing that I've got the blip in the camera - not a bad start to the day!

I then had a smashing chat with a student and an equally smashing chat with some staff at the site and headed home to get some work done.

John, the farm manager came round to sort the drains and we had a chat too. He was telling me about the difficulties of running the farm at the moment - there's very little money about. In 1971 apples were selling at 23p/pound. Today they are 20p/pound at the farm gate. This year all the farmers have had a bumper harvest and Russia has banned European food imports - Russia doesn't buy English apples but they used to buy from farms across Europe and as they have lost the Russian market the whole of Europe is awash with apples. Before anyone says "you never see a poor farmer" he pointed out that you might not see a poor landowner the people who work the land without owning it are on their uppers just now.

And tomorrow I have to be up and out redonculously early so I'll be in me bed early this evening so you'll all have to keep an eye on the Internet while I grab some kip.