Windy.

It is very frustrating to find that a couple of active days affect my back. I know it's a cliché but the age you feel in your head often isn't a reflection of reality. With only one shower in the middle of the day it would have been a good gardening day but I resisted and did 45 minutes on the exercise bike instead. I also baked 2 banana loaves and yet again restrung Peter's shark tooth necklace while he was out rowing on the river. He returned tired but happy as they had been rowing out against the tide and strong winds. At least it was easier for them coming back up the river.

I had prepared my evening salad and was taking the scraps up to the compost heap when I heard the sound of heavy vehicles coming down the hill. Peering through the trees I could see several tractors followed by more tractors in what seemed an unending stream. I had my camera with me and took photos of the tractors as they drove into the stable car park and on down the valley towards Princess Gate. A quick search on line confirmed it was a tractor run starting from Viveham Farm, Muddiford, up Rookabear Lane, down this side of the hill and eventually back again presumably via East Down. Tractor runs are quite common in this area and are a chance for enthusiasts to show off their vintage tractors or even their everyday tractors.

Looking at the tractor run details reminded me of a family tale. Many years ago when we were first down here Peter was part of the skittles team based at the Muddiford Inn.  He was at the Inn playing skittles when the word went out that there was an emergency at Viveham Farm, some hay in a barn had spontaneously combusted. The farmer and his wife had for the very first time left the farm in the hands of their grown up sons while they had a weekend away. What a thing to happen. The farm is part way up Rookabear Lane which is track part of which is only passible by tractors or sturdy 4WDs. At the time we had a Landrover so Peter was involved in ferrying people up to the farm and helping to move equipment out of the way. Thankfully in the end there wasn't too much damage. Incidentally the top end of Rookabear Lane is where a SatNav takes anyone trying to find us using modern technology.

Many of today's tractors had passengers either in trailers or in boxes attached to the rear of the tractors. They all seemed to be enjoying themselves.