As we live in Swanage to visit K and I ‘up North’ means that we travel the entire length of the country. We leave the rolling Downs of Dorset and the gentle hills of the Cotswolds and into the vast urban sprawls of Birmingham and Manchester and eventually glimpses of the Lakes. We leave the motorway at Carlisle and immediately we are plunged into a world of stone-built villages and rugged Moorland.
At Mineral House we are greeted by all the dogs from huge Basil to tiny Tinkerbell. Then the hens and ducks come to say ‘hello’, and to check on the food situation. Later we realize that Freckles the lamb has one ambition and that is to get into the house by whatever means possible whenever the door is open.
The days pass in a blur of neverending activity – let the hens out, collect the eggs, water the ducks, count the Herdwicks, disentangle the goats, brush the rabbits, check the chicks – oh, and occasionally feeding the humans!
The BarBQ was fun as the Angora goats insisted on joining us and we were so intent on making sure they didn’t pinch the coleslaw that we didn’t spot the hen making off with the ‘veggie’-burger!
Now it is time to return ‘down South’ to Holiday-makers, lost children, Punch and Judy and scavenging seagulls — won’t it all seem quiet!