We had two nights away in Hampshire for Matthew’s wedding. The gate was closed on the Friday and our friends Margaret and Terry stood in for us on Saturday. This was a rare event, I hardly ever go away. After a leisurely drive back I got to the nursery soon after 1 pm. There was a bit of a crisis going on because the card machine wasn’t working and a customer was poised to pay for her plants. So I sorted that out and talked to some other visitors. George the cat was being a bit aloof with me, telling me off for leaving him no doubt. So I was trying to make it up with him when I looked up the field and saw, horror of horrors, the herd of sheep from the next door field. There were about 40 grazing nonchalantly working their way closer to the nursery. Terry and I guided them slowly (the last thing I wanted was for them to get spooked and scatter everywhere) and eventually they went back through the barbed wire at the back of the barn. Philip had turned up by then and he and Terry put some corrugated metal sheets across the gap.

Back, with huge relief, to serving customers and to try to calm down. But ten minutes later the blasted creatures were back. So the three of us plus George herded them back. I do wish I’d had a camera. George was acting as if rounding up sheep was something he did every day. not rushing them but put himself in exactly the right place and miaowed meaningfully at them.

Eventually the owner of the sheep was tracked down and more hurdles were put up as barriers and he said he would move them elsewhere the following day. The sheep had quite an adventurous day, apparently they had wandered about on the road for a while in the morning and visited the next door marina. Never a dull moment.