As I took things out of the car this morning Julia unlocked the centre and called across to me. I wasn’t able to hear her because of the noise from singing birds and bleating sheep. That’s not a bad start to the day.

What she was trying to tell me was that we have had another parcel delivery. We now have our Open Farm Sunday posters and volunteer badges, which is a mixed blessing. On the one hand it’s good to have the resources, but on the other it’s a wake up call. We now have two months to go and I haven’t started getting ready yet. I’m doing the poultry display in the education tent, the Scarecrow Competition, helping with Breadfest and, as of yesterday, designing the traditional fete games for Men in Sheds to build. Thinking of it, I’m not actually sure why I’m writing this instead of getting on with my other jobs.

The new posters and badges

Of course, things never run smoothly and within minutes I was on toilet duty. The farm is concentrating on lambing and nothing else gets done, not even emptying the toilets. I will spare you more details. Let’s just say my day failed to live up to its early promise.

At least it didn’t get any worse.

On a more appetising note, yesterday’s group session went well – with 18 children plus carers having a great day out in the fresh air and making pizza. There’s an inevitability about making pizza when you come here. Actually, 17 of them had  a great day out, one spent most of the time asking when they could go home and why the day couldn’t have been organised at a theme park. There’s something about teenage girls that doesn’t work well with a day on the farm. We had some eggs left over, as you can see.

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