Chance meetings

What a day.!

The top paddock has 4 feet of growth, so it takes two passes with the flail mower to get it short enough to put the sheep on. I finish in time to borrow Nick’s pickup and get a load of 6 x 2 in Penicuik.

I meet Alan at Beatsons and we make vague plans to meet up tonight or Sunday. Screwfix supplies me with Paslode gas, but theres no one there I recognise. Lidl’s has whisky, which I’m getting for Mike and, coincidentally, I bump into him there.

Angus arrived from Quintan’s party, sleepless, and promptly falls asleep in the sun. When he wakes we put the lid in the trailer and I head round to Mike’s, where I collect my two newly sheared sheep - and relinquish my two bottles of Lidl whisky.

The sheep are deposited in the paddock. Angus is still in bed. Mike and I head to Alan and Sandra’s. We eat, we drink, we converse. Hours pass. The sun is rising as Mike sets off, on foot, for Blyth Bridge. I opt to sleep it off in the spare room.