The Pig Yard

January - the winter months are always quieter and January was no exception. The weather was unusually mild and we managed to get out for some weekend walks.

Jane continues to busy herself playing squash, table tennis, swimming, cycling (when the weather allows) and of course working at least 3 days per week. Steve works 45 hours a week and tends to flop in front of the television when he gets home just putting on the inches around the waistline.

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The New Year started with bright sunshine so we were up at a sensible hour and travelled off to Roade to enjoy a walk across the fields to Stoke Bruerne and watch the traditional Morris dancers going through their routines. The morning was bright and sunny but quite cold so they were only too pleased to keep moving.

We had arranged to meet up with the usual suspects. They turned up later than expected so we decided to sit outside the Boat Inn drinking hot chocolate (Steve) and coffee (Jane) while we waited for them to arrive. It helped to warm us up sufficiently before heading back across the fields again. Not long after getting back to the car the clouds slipped in and it soon started to rain.

After 25+ years we've decided to buy a new bed. Our old one (pictured) has been moved into three homes and had several mattresses, it now creeks a little when we get into it. Jane has decided that the new bed will be a King Size so we've had to buy all new bedding to accommodate the upgrade. Everything comes to an end, however this bed will live on in the spare room of someone Jane knows from squash - Steve was all for cutting it up and burning it but then he is plainly an arsonist.

The new bed needed to fit under the window ledge but we couldn't find anywhere that matched the height restriction so we finished up getting one made to measure. Let's hope it lasts as long as this one, if it does we'll be well over 80 so we may not care anymore.

Although the weather was generally mild it was often cloudy and there are times at weekends when it is difficult to get out for a walk because the landscape just looks grey and depressing. We did force ourselves on several occasions to walk across the fields to Gayton or along the canal. Most times the lighting was poor and therefore we didn't get many photographs of any value.

Even the pictures we took of the sheep with their new lambs were blurred because the lambs wouldn't stand still.

Anyway for those people who have a particular thing about "attractive" sheep here's one we thought was a bit of a looker...