We went back to the farm today. It was raining heavily and the farm track, which seems to have had some hard use recently, had several streams running down it. In terms of the pathetic fallacy it was like the sky was crying onto the ruins of the farm. In fact that was rubbish, it was just bad weather and a badly maintained track, but it gives me a chance to allude to past problems and the fact they are too lazy to maintain a simple farm track.
The aim of the journey was not to remember the bad times but to visit Men in Sheds and eat chocolate cake to celebrate Bill’s 85th birthday. We didn’t know it was chocolate cake when we set off, we just knew it was “cake”, with the chocolate element being a bonus.
Since we last visited they have sorted out the catering and now make breakfast for themselves as part of the daily routine. They have also been making nest boxes and bird feeders and are now making markers to identify the trees in the new edible woodland. That’s woodland that produces fruit and nuts to eat, not a selection of trees you can eat. You’d have to be a beaver before woodland became truly edible.
It was a pleasant enough way of passing a couple of hours and we have been invited backย in a fortnight for another birthday.
We followed up with lunch at the garden centre and a trip round some charity shops looking for curtains. We found some at the 5th shop (oh, how glad was I?). They are excellent curtains, even I can see that, ย and are long enough to cut down and use the leftover bits for making a couple of cushion covers.
That’s a woman thing – no man would think of it.
I wouldn’t have a cushion in the house if it were left to me. I’ve never seen a use for them, apart from throwing at the kids, and in a house full of books you don’t really need cushions for that.

All looking serious…
Best to Bill on his 85th birthday! Glad you got to go back for that. It still is hurtful that you had to leave the farm. I am sorry that happened to you and Julia.
I love Second-hand stores! Lots of good, useful things there. ๐
It’s Peter’s birthday in 2 weeks, Mick’s in 7 weeks and Robert’s in the middle of the tear, so we won’t go short of cake. ๐
I like seeing the Men but the rest is still a bit painful.
Good looking shed.
Yes, it’s a good shed, and getting better as they train the farmer. They actually got him to part with ยฃ20 yesterday!
So pleased the Men in Sheds are continuing. We curtained our whole place from charity shops. An area where people go to retire has rich pickings. Was that last picture something you said? ๐
Good tip on the curtains – we are looking for more so will have to target our search.
I don’t know what happened in that last shot. Maybe the Grim Reaper fancy dress was a mistake… ๐
I like the rain anology , it reminded me of Woody Allen in ‘Manhattan’
“I like the rain, it washes memories off the sidewalk of life”
I never got to experience ‘cake in sheds’ ๐
Don’t say never, you have many potential years of cake in sheds…
๐