An embarrasment of Johnsons

I went up to deepest Shropshire at the weekend to collect my niece Knickers and all her Knickerly doings, in preparation for her final year at uni, when she will be staying with us and eating us out of house and home in return for some much needed help about the homestead.

The journey up there was crap and long and awash with rancid weather as it invariably is around Birmingham. I can only assume that there must be some notable geographical feature that predisposes the area to a higher than average rainfall, because every time, and I do mean every time I, or anyone else I know has the misfortune to drive through it, it's raining. It reminds me a bit of Sintra in Portugal in that regard, in that Sintra has characteristics (mountains, by the sea) which predispose it to clouds rolling down the hillsides and enveloping anyon driving along the coastal road in thick fog at a moment's notice. But while Sintra has the benefits of sun, sea, mountains, warmth and being in the hallowed land awash with Lusitanos and the best coffee, cake and horses found anywhere, Birmingham is none of those things and is merely a blot on the landscape whose only function is to rain on people like me as we drive through.

Anyway. We had a fabulous farewell party for Knick Knack that involved the combined bodyweight of everyone in food, some nice wine and lots of siilly photos, finished off with an emotional farewell of the sort that only the Johnsons can do, and a path beaten back to deepest Kent to begin the next phase of her time at Uni. And for a miracle, it was (a) sunny, and (b) not a traffic jam in Birmingham. Who knew these things were even possible? Not me.

We got home about 1ish and the rest of the day was spent doing horsey doings, poo picking and such while Knickers unpacked and got her flip flops under the spare bed. The boys finished off putting a gale break around the arena, I worked both horses in hand, Knickers and I poo picked the boys' fields and then we all collapsed over a nice cous cous, knackered.

This week, it's almost as if there's a giant pixie in the house, cleaning it while we're out at work. Every day I come back something is cleaner than when I left it! On the flip side, fruit is disappearing at an alarming rate :)