And as usual I didn’t have my camera with me!  At least Friday stayed dry although it was cool and dull. Two cottages out with one back in and one cleaner up.  Went down to Bakewell to get provisions for the weekend late morning.  Had a window of opportunity to plant up the trough at the bottom of the drive early afternoon.  This meant I had an attentive audience.   As I walked down the drive with a gaggle of cows following me I stopped to talk to Andrew who was fertilising the fields.  He had thought about silaging this weekend but with a damp forecast he will wait a little longer.  By the time I got to the bottom of the drive I had about two dozen cows from the drive field plus the youngsters from the next field all having a look to see what I was up to.  The cows in the drive field were quite inquisitive about the wheelbarrow and the tools – I kept the geraniums close to me so they wouldn’t disappear!  I dug the plants into the trough and all the time I could hear the cows breathing behind me.  Suddenly Andrew opened the gates to get from the drive field to the adjoining field and the cows in both fields rushed up to where the tractor was.  The cows in the drive field then turned round and ran back down to entrance to the drive.  Glad nobody was coming back at that stage.  In the meantime the cows in the next field were running after the tractor, don’t forget they are trained to do this, but as the tractor passed close to where I was they all came back to watch me!  When done I walked back up the drive and I could have sworn I was nudged by 944 who seems to have taken a liking to Chris.  Each time I stopped they did too. I’m sure it would have looked comical on a video!  Back in time for guests to arrive.  They are showing dogs at the dog show in Bakewell this weekend.  Next week we have lots of dogs at our peak district cottages so Smudge will be happy.

May’s weather statistics
23rd was warmest day with highest temp 24.5 deg C on 24th which had the warmest night. 5th was the coldest day and night with lowest temp -0.4.  Wettest day was 9th with .48 in rain with 2.1 inches for May compared to 3 inches May 2011