School Sports

There were squeals of excitement this morning, amid a lot of bleating. The pet lambs had found their way to the front door of the farmhouse. They have been somewhat neglected over the past few days, with youngest daughter confined to the house with a cold, and our son away on a school trip, and eldest daughter having given up all interest in any pet lambs in place of a horse. Anyway this morning they had somehow managed to get out of the front field and make their way to our doorstep. ‘Oh no’ giggled the youngest, ‘they are eating the roses’. I heard the front door being opened, followed by a roar from the happy farmer, ‘Don’t let them come in.’. It brought back memories of when we had the pet goats and had to steal our way out of the door, pushing them away from the step as we went; otherwise they were in the house like a shot.

Milk was duly made for Lucy and Frizzle and they were returned to the field. It seems the lambs are going to have to be weaned off the children as well as the milk.

We went to the school sports last night. The railings were festooned with balloons and banners, the children excited at the possibility of winning some races. It was a lovely atmosphere as they raced in year groups of between two to eight children, each getting a sweet after they made it across the finishing line. There was a running race, a potato and spoon race, a sack race, and a jumping race, where a squashy ball was placed between the knees. The primary sevens got to compete in the dressing up race, which consisted of heavy duty fishing gloves, tee shirts, shorts, hats and wellies. Finally it was time for the parents’ race; although I had half expected the happy farmer and his friends to join the high school children in the former pupils’ race, I am sure there was an odd grandparent there who would have qualified. We stood in a line and waited as we were told, ‘get set, take your marks,’ of course all the cheating dads took off at that one, and finally ‘go’. I managed to do really well thanks to the happy farmer and his friends grabbing onto one another, pulling each other back, tripping themselves up, and rolling in a ball down the hill, before finally managing to pick themselves up off the ground and race to the finishing line. It gave me those much needed extra minutes to beat them all.

Following the races we went into the hall for home baking and tea while the children went to try the lucky dip, the coconut shy and the ‘soak the P7s’, in which my son got completely drenched. The happy farmer won ‘oodles’ of wine in the raffle, and Farmer C came to the rescue when our youngest was in tears because she hadn’t won a coconut. The rain had held off all day, finally beginning to fall in huge plumps. We haven’t had rain up this end of the island for over two weeks. Yippee, no watering the vegetable patch this weekend, then I got home and watched the news with horror as I saw scenes of widespread flooding elsewhere, I do hope none of you have been affected by the flood waters.

Until next time……