A good few miles away on the clock...

The happy farmer’s sister was over visiting on a working break, for a wee spot of partying, I mean painting and maintenance, to the cottage she owns down the road. She breezed in off the afternoon plane, having sent her cousin, who she had enlisted to join her for a relaxing break, involving non-stop painting with a tad of partying thrown in, on the very long car and ferry route. Her cousin and the car were needed to deliver the necessary sweets and cakes, variety of bottles, not forgetting the huge tubs of paint, that always accompany the happy farmer’s sister on such visits.

Those two girls spent their days painting away, even surprising themselves with the amount they managed to get done in the short space of time they had, especially as my sister in law is nearly sixty, as she always reminds us, even though sixty is a good few miles on the clock away.

The evenings were spent around the farmhouse kitchen table eating hearty meals and catching up with us all.

The happy farmer was getting increasingly frustrated as the demands of the lambing rounds were preventing him from giving his sister a much needed hand, until eventually on their final day he did manage to pop down for an hour or so of painting. Armed with a ladder he was determined to reach the parts no other painter had gone before. He gaily climbed some steps and lent the ladder against the back door, proceeded to climb up and start painting, gallon tin of paint in hand, when the back door suddenly burst open, allowing the ladder to fall in the way and slip down the concrete steps at the same time, transporting the happy farmer flat on his face on the ground, tin of paint still in hand and unspoiled  His sister and cousin spent the first seconds alarmed and concerned, before creasing into helpless bundles of laughter at the happy farmer’s misfortune. Luckily he escaped relatively unscathed, apart from the huge concrete burns on his arms and knees, nothing a good dram couldn't sort out later on! The happy farmer’s big achievement that he was immensely proud of was the fact that not a drop of paint was spilled during his free fall, a skill he puts down to years of acrobatic training in various bars involving various bar stools and varying amounts of alcohol….

Until next time……