"My! My! My! Delila

Our pigs have always been stars. Since Ginger's first litter were born back in November 2007 the paparazzi have beat a path to our arks but Delila truly stole the show last Wednesday evening.
The Big Boss and I had settled down to a relaxing hour or so of TV after dinner but were disrupted by the loud noises come from the woods outside the front of the house:

"What the Hell's going on out there?" I said after a bout of very loud banging.....

Slowly the pieces started to fall into place.

Delila had been a little late out for her tea that afternoon: enough for me to think her 'time' was almost nigh: her food bowl had 'disappeared' and when I looked inside her ark the straw was all piled up on one side..... housework had clearly been done....no sign of the bowl though......Whilst she was eating I collected an armful of sticks and branches and threw them into her pen thinking she could soon be needing them.....

We'd just got on to The Great British Food Revival when it all went quiet outside. The TV crew had been here, back in October or November last year, filming with Clarissa Dickson Wright so we were hopeful of catching sight of our pigs on the programme. And suddenly there we were in the woods talking to Clarissa about our curly coats. "Come and meet Delila" I said to her after we'd spent some moments talking with the Maiden Aunts in the background. Delila was rootling contentedly in her pen next door.

"Oh Look, now there's a magnificent pig!" Exclaimed Clarissa. "My! My! My Delila: look at the size of her!" At the sound of her name Delila - as if on cue - stopped her rootling, lifted her head and looked Clarissa straight in the eye.

At about the same time as that very scene was being enacted on national TV Delila was giving birth to her litter of little squiglets.When Pilot, Gunner and I took our habitual late night stroll up the drive I could just about distinguish the sound of gruntles coming from her ark. I wasn't absolutely sure though. I mean - having piglets on cue with one's appearance on National TV was a little too much of a coincidence wasn't it?

As we got back to the house though there was an unmistakeable "Squeaeeeakk": " That's it" I thought to myself.

"Definitely new piglets" I said to The Boss when I got up to bed - and we both settled down contentedly for the night.

"Bit of a Prima Donna, that sow, don't you think?" he muttered before falling asleep.

Next morning whilst Delila was distracted by her breakfast I peered inside the ark and there they were: 8 or 9 or 10 wriggly pigglies. Difficult to tell exact numbers because they keep wriggling and piling up on each other like worms...................

The Boss promptly sent Clarissa a postcard of one of our sows with her newborns: told her on hearing Clarissa call her name, Delila promptly gave birth ---

"Wanted to be done and dusted before the Paparazzi turned up." I said.

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The programme airs on www/bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/GreatBritishFoodRevival till next Wednesday : minutes 49-52 are the relevant ones.........................