Mrs Downs Diary - Sept 2 2009

We were also not quite so keen to take them in early this morning. Last time ours were the first pens to be sold, and later pens fetched a higher price. Not made the same mistake this morning. Dined off bacon butties before we left. Not only were we not as hungry at market, but the price was better.

Quite a celebration weekend. A birthday bash and a civil partnership. Both were incredibly well organised. Both benefitted from beautiful evenings. A hog roast at one and sausages and mash at the other. Enough to satisfy the heartiest appetites. Balloons also were happy features of both events.

At one they decorated the hall where the venue was held and at the other, floated high above the field where the marquee had been erected. That was an excellent idea to show people where the celebration was being held, as otherwise, high hedges would have obscured the entrance in a tiny village like ours.

Because of overnight rain, John, the practical famer, was needed to lend a hand. 4 x4 vehicles could get through a muddy gate where caterers had churned things up. But most cars could not cope. A tractor bucketful of stones soon put the job right.

The only jarring note came the next morning when John found a number of large pink bags of material draped across grasses and hedges on fields we have adjoining the event. Some were actually in amongst the fields where the cattle and sheep graze and others had landed in a field due to be baled that morning.

We had held off baling because of recent wet weather after the winter barley harvest, but a few dry days had meant that John had asked the contractors to go in and get the straw baled on the Sunday morning.

The mystery bags were the remains of Chinese Lanterns. As we had left the event early we had not seen them float off but a considerable number had dropped into our fields when the wicks that fuel the expansion of hot air in the lantern, burnt out.

Fortunately John was able to remove the remains before the bags got caught up in the bales. The danger to livestock comes from the lanterns' wire frame. The wire is thin and could easily embed into a hoof, or, and do not underestimate the appetite of a cow or sheep, get swallowed as they graze.

It is many years now since we lost an animal with a piece of wire in it's gut, but believe me, we had to have the bull put down once the problem was diagnosed because it was going downhill so rapidly and in such pain.

It's difficult. No-one wants to be a killjoy. But perhaps, if anyone is reading this and considering them as quieter than fireworks (again something livestock hate) they could consider the environmental impact.

They can be a nuisance to coastguards (mistakenly mistaken for distress flares), marine life (swallowed by turtles probably because they look like giant jellyfish) pose a fire hazard to standing crops and a real pain on a Sunday morning to those left to clear up the litter and debris.