Only one place to start this week. After an equatorial down pour all day Saturday, by 10.30 in the evening the Bow Brook had spilled over its banks and we had a parallel river flowing down all the fields adjoining it. This was our first major flood for eight years, but our fifth in ten years despite the Environmental Agency asserting floods here are likely only once every 200 years (..!!)

We took the view that there was no need to move the stock in two of the flooded fields and went to bed hoping for the best. Happily at first light I found water levels had significantly fallen and when Chris went out later only the oxbow scrape was an extension of the river. And yet on Friday, after three rain free days, the majority of our pastures were reasonably dry!

On Wednesday Sebastian and I had tickets for the Public Gallery – thanks to our local MP and investor Karen Lumley – to observe PM’s Questions. We enjoyed not only the experience in parliament but also the chance to talk given the five hours spent in the car.

A less happy experience was on Friday when we attended the funeral of a friend we had known since 1971! Actually it was a very upbeat occasion despite the sadness of loss and the reminder of our own age and mortality!

A reasonably busy week in front of us with stock feeding and three trips to take lambs to market. Otherwise all is in the lap of the gods – as they say!

The chickens somehow seem to ignore the weather and still give us seven eggs a day – even if from time to time size varies as you can see!

– Farmer Adrian