Happy Anniversary Mama and Papa

A rather beautiful day today – with the weather making me smile, I attended my parents’ anniversary luncheon where, around 10 couples who are all friends from ‘youth club’ were there to celebrate with them. Over the years at each of these gatherings  – once a good solid table plan of 40, (now 26 what with ‘passings’ or other commitments) the table plan has reduced somewhat, but still over 10 couples all still friends from the teenage years, quite beautiful I think.

My father on the eve of the luncheon asked me, no wait, told me, that I must give a talk on what I have been up to, “It’s the only way I will ever find out what you are actually doing with your life”  well, perhaps he does have a point!

I gave my ramblings in two portions, one before main course (about the Car Stories exhibition I curated, including the Lillington Youth Group animation film we made for it) and one after (more about the exhibition and  the Macular Society’s involvement in the project).  I even received questions and was asked to talk about my time in the Hebrides… a good few years ago now, but I did, and speaking loudly to accommodate for their octogenarian hearing aids, I think they were happy. They all knew about my woman and the car research as I have been doing this for a few years now and asked how this was going… “It’s being ‘developed'” I said, “watch this space!”

From being in London for the gorgeous lunch with the ‘old’ friends, to travelling back on the M25 this evening to my stable yard to feed Martina Navaratalova my adopted cat (who adopted me in August), I found a sheep with two dead lambs by its feet.

In shock I stood there not knowing what to do, by which time Deborah, the stable yard owner came by with a live lamb from the neighbouring farm  (Old Farm Dorn – where I get my milk and other daily produce) and proceeded to perform something that I had only seen on Lambing Live or Countryfile. Asking me if I had an angle grinder (which embarrassingly I did not), Deborah said that her pen knife was a bit blunt…? next she asked if I was squeamish, to which I replied “yes and no” but would be happy to be midwife on all the other bits bar the bit that I though she was going to do!

I watched with my legs crossed and eyes half covered with my hands across them opening then quickly closing then opening almost immediately – as she took off the skin from one of the dead lambs, hanging the lamb from a post to be able to get the tightness of the skin as it needed to come off as a whole (sorry to my vegan friends, but this was such a call of nature). It was something I had never ‘smelt’ with my eyes before, something that was pure need for the duty ahead. Then she rubbed the live lamb in the dead lambs blood and placed it as a cosy pullover over the new live lamb who by now, was already ‘baaring’ back and forth with the surrogate mother.

Next up a pen was made for the sheep and the new lamb placed under the sheep to be able to start to suckle. The baby lamb soon found where the milk was and it seemed like this new adoption was going to work out. However, the sheep stomped around a bit, so Deborah tied the sheep up to the pen to ensure that the baby lamb wouldn’t be trampled on overnight in the stable.

I got together the water and hay and felt all ‘Call the Midwife Live’ and we watched for a while as the two inmates begun their bond. My city life was a distant cry from what had occurred in the stable yard this evening, I suddenly felt totally in love and quite overwhelmed by what I had just witnessed.  I looked over at  Martina Navaratalova, who was sitting on her carpet tile and looked on with interest at this whole scenario, she soon wondered off to her own cosy basket beside Big Red, my unfinished Land Rover.

From old friends to new ones.
What a gorgeous and rather excellently delivered beautiful day.
Happy Anniversary Mum and Papa

La
x