Catch up

One of Ginger's Finest exploring the sunspots

Beautiful though life up here in The Wolds may be, there are times when one hankers for the trappings of a distant urban sprawl. Not many I hasten to add. However, when a well known internet & 'phone service provider fails to live up to expectations and one is thrust into the chasm of a communications black hole, one can be heard to mutter such moral obscenities! Which is a long winded way of saying we've been out of 

Delila's paddling piglets

touch for 14 days through no fault of our own.
In the intervening period life has obviously continued. The piglets have been free ranging for some time now. Delila's have been out and about from 7 or 8 days old so now know the territory like the back of their trotters. Ginger's 7 were a little slow to leave Mum's side but are making up for it now, rarely being seen 'at home' and frequently messing about with Delila's lot. As for Mrs Merkel's 6 bouncing babes, they are quite the bosses of the lot.

Gunner explaining the Rules of Engagement to the mini Merkels

When they appear, the others all run back to their respective territories. Being the offspring of a Maiden mum they were well protected for the first two weeks - kept in the ark and fed on what, looking at them, must have been a half hourly cycle - they have a bloom to them that I have never noticed on our piglets before.... and they are cocky with it. They even thought they could get away with telling Gunner what to do - but he was having none of that. He's taken his responsibilities as seriously as ever and has spent quite some time explaining the Rules of Engagement to them...... not that they have taken any of them on board ..... there is no way of making a piglet do anything other than what a piglet wants to do..... And that's what it'll be like for the next three or four weeks - until they are weaned. They'll be here, there and everywhere - much to the bemusement of visitors and passers by. I used to be concerned about the effect of lots of little trotters and snouts on the garden but now I just think it's a good excuse not to get on with the planting! There'll be plenty of summer (?!) left to catch up when they've been weaned....................