Helping hand from postie
MORROWS WORLD
ITS holiday time here, our schools get off at the start of July and for the next two months we try to juggle our holidays so there are not too many people all away at once.
As you probably know, disasters wait until the person in charge is out of the country and then rear their ugly heads, causing all sorts of stress on those left at home. This year has followed the usual pattern. Timothy, who manages the dairy herd, escaped to France with his trailer tent, wife, three children and enough equipment to entertain the whole camp site, leaving us to look after the cows, the house and two cats. So far weve had to put down a cow with a broken leg, got a bull stuck in the slurry tank (he was also dead by the time we got him out), had a flood in the house and lost one of the cats. Hes only been away a week! Johnston and I are hoping he does a better job of the Open Farm when we are away in August.
The summer season has started quietly on the Open Farm, which is just as well because most of my cafe staff are on holiday – we were reduced to eleven-year-old Helen washing dishes this weekend. The cafe must be my least favourite bit of the Open Farm, but it has made me a much more tolerant customer if I am ever eating out myself. I understand if the service is slow, the menu is not complete or the order gets mixed up. All these things have regularly happened to us, no matter how hard we try. It really is a very difficult job and I have tremendous admiration for those who do it well.
Our first year was horrendous. The menu which seemed reasonably simple had a major leftovers problem – even Johnston, who eats anything, was struggling with creamy chicken and bacon salad three weeks in a row. We always had too much when there were few visitors and were continually running out when there were lots. Talk about learning on the hoof That first summer was as big a learning experience as three years at university – and no qualification at the end of it. Theres no doubt we are slicker now that we are into our fourth year. The much reduced menu means that we can cope with producing a meal for a family before they have all passed out with hunger. Johnston doesnt have to worry about leftovers at all now – weve still got 17-year-old Jim from Australia living with us and he really does eat anything.
Our daughter Jenny is in the middle of her "Ulster Project" in Milwaukee, USA, and loving every minute of it, as we knew she would. The e-mail system has really come into its own for keeping in touch with her and I regularly sit down to drop her a few lines about all the minutiae that you would never bother to write a letter about but which is the mainstay of family life.
But something has happened; no one is owning up to having done it, but somehow we have got our own password or address lost or the computer has forgotten it or whatever, and absolutely no one here knows how to sort it out. It has really brought it home to me how computer illiterate I am. I totally rely on other people to program it and do technical things which are beyond me. This problem isnt easy as it was installed by a Ukrainian with the help of a Swede, both of whom are out of the country – on holiday of course. Oh well, back to the air mails I suppose.
Helping hand from postie
I wonder how many town dwellers even know what their postman or woman looks like, let alone what their name is. How fortunate that many of us who live in rural areas have a postie who is not only friendly but helpful as well.
When you live alone it is great to know that someone is willing to help with the odd job in exchange for a morning cuppa.
While travelling through Glos recently I called in to see Mary Humphreys and as I had already asked for directions from her postman was amused to meet him in her kitchen 10 minutes later. My own rushes around at a great rate of knots but has been known to feed the cat, climb a ladder and help change a wheel. Lets hope that the changes being planned for the Post Office wont affect this very important part of rural life.
Another person handy to know is a local bee-keeper. The other Sunday I had a swarm in the front hedge and an old friend David Tasker, came to my rescue. Other friends arrived soon after and thought that he and his assistant Barbara were the men in white coats who had at last come to take me away – no such luck!
Jean Howells
This informal friendship club has more than 60 groups
nationwide and is open to all female readers of FW.
Details from Jean Howells (0208-652 4927)
BERKS
Wed, Aug 11, 2pm. Meet at Forge Cottage, Winterbourne for a walk followed by tea with Shirley. If wet bring a photograph of yourself as a baby. Contact Hilda Gore
(01488-685348).
CAMBRIDGE
Wed, Aug 4, 7.15pm. Meet outside Old Addenbrookes Building, opposite Fitzwilliam Museum in Trumpington Street for a Blue Badge tour of Cambridge. Names to Shirley Dodson (01954-230897).
CORNWALL
Sun, Aug 22, 12 noon. Meet at Margaret and John Bates home, Teason Farm, Cardingham for
tour of farm museum and gardens. Refreshments, raffle and
antiques valuations by Roger Knowles. Admission £2,
children free. Contact Margaret
(01208-821221).
HAMPSHIRE
Wed, Aug 11, 11am. Meet for
coffee at Park House, Upper Lanham Farm, Alresford. Bring and buy sale and lunch at 12.30pm.
Contact Betty Tickner
(01420-562754) by Aug 7.
HEART OF ENGLAND
Thur, Aug 5, 7.30pm. Beetle Drive at Jean Harveys home, Gate
Farm, Fen End. Contact Fay
(01203-466326) or
Lorraine (01203-392205).
HEREFORD-NORTH
Wed, Aug 11, 12 noon. Meet at the Grove Golf Centre, Fordsbridge for a ploughmans lunch followed
by a talk Life in the Hedgerows. Contact Edna Bemand
(01568-760275) or
Olwen Helme (01568-612784).
KENT
Wed, Aug 11, 12 noon. Meet at Yalding Organic Gardens for lunch and tour. Contact Dorothy Highwood (01892-730270). Jean Howells hopes to be there.
NORFOLK-SOUTH WEST
Wed, Aug 11, 12 noon. Meet at Crosshill, Whittington for swim
and barbecue. Contact Joan
(01366-500208).
NORTHANTS
Tue, Aug 17, 12 for 12.30pm. Meet at the Star Inn, Sulgrave for a ploughmans lunch followed by a visit to Sulgrave Manor at 2pm. Names to Tip Smith (01908-510871)
by Aug 9.
N COTSWOLD
Wed, Aug 11, 2.30pm. Meet at Janet Smiths home, Banks Farm, Upper Oddington. Please bring a
garden chair. Contact Pauline (01608-737733).
SUSSEX
Sun, Aug 1, 12 noon. National British Beef Day Celebration Beef Barbecue at Church Farm, Coombes. Cost £5, proceeds to RABI. Non members welcome. Tickets from Mary Passmore (01273-452028).
N YORKS-SKIPTON
Tue, Aug 3, 12 for 12.30pm. Meet the York group at Bolton Abbey village hall for lunch followed by talk Victorian Underwear by Bernadette Atkinson. Contact Betty Ellis
(01535-652845). Jean Howells hopes to be there.
WEST FIFE & KINROSS
Wed, Aug 4, 2.30pm. Bus leaves Urquhart Farm for trip to visit former Royal Yacht Britannia. Contact Margaret Young (01592-873034).