- Peggy sounded just like Jill
- David takes the blame too far
- Peggy’s a groupie!
- Drying grass in the oven! Surely a bad sign?
- The Victorian fairy painter
- Pip, the poet laureate (cows only)
- Counsellor? Nope – call in the vet.
Peggy sounded just like Jill
Not that I’d mistaken her – just by sounding so grumpy and judgemental.
Peggy does have her moments, but she’s no naysayer like Jill.
[Jill] “When I was a publican I’d have chosen Easter for a holiday”
She did then go on to say that she hoped Kenton and Jolene had a good time (David was quick to point out that the timing was Kenton’s idea).
David takes the blame too far
Talking to Shula about the low milk yield, David reckons it’s all his fault.
[David] “What makes it worse was that it should have been avoidable … there’s no mystery about it Shula, it was bad management. Simple as that”
Seems Alistair begs to differ, but David doesn’t seem to be in a very rational mood right now.
Peggy’s a groupie!
Peggy went with Ted to the U3A meeting today. Ted was speaking about a painter chap called Richard Dadd (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dadd) which non-one (myself included) seems to have heard of.
Anyway, Peggy was quite aglow about it, and thoroughly enjoyed hearing Ted speak. And to get out and about for once.
[Peggy] “So much of my time is taken up with Jack, and just the business of living”
Looks like Ted is actually quite a renaissance man.
He lectures and is an artist in his own right.
I think Peggy might be realising that Ted is quite a nice catch. She’s certainly now very interested in seeing some of his work.
How utterly nice and sweet (and I'm not being sarcastic, for once).
About time Peggy was able to have something (someone) for herself.
Plus no guilt. Jack and Ted’s wife seem to be an item anyhoo …
The Victorian fairy painter
Is seemingly who Richard Dadd is.
Drying grass in the oven! Surely a bad sign?
Ruth walks in to find David drying grass in the oven.
I thought he’d finally tipped, but it’s seemingly quite normal behaviour.
Something to do with recalculating the (floating plate?) meter. That’s something to do with how they feed their cows. I think. David is drying the grass so he can work out the dry matter to calibrate the meter. Seemingly.
David was very abrupt with Ruth. He was sarcastic when she realised what he was up to. Dismissive when she tried to give him a bit of TLC over his blistered thumb. And he outright lost his rag when Ruth dared to suggest that this recalibration malarkey should have been done a couple of weeks back.
[Ruth] “If we didn’t get the right figures, how can we get the feed right?”
[David] “Yes, I do know, and I don’t need you to lecture me about it”
[Ruth to Pip] “He’s sensitive. He’s down about everything, about the whole situation”
So, off Pip pops to have a go at Pop.
And how does she get him to stop working for a second?
She lures him with talk of Herefords …
Pip, the poet laureate (cows only)
[Pip] “There. See. How that’s for eye candy. A field full of happy, healthy cattle, all grazing peacefully. Bright eyed and glossy coated …All down to you dad. They’re so gorgeous,. And profitable”
David still isn’t impressed, she Pip starts on about her new ideas to sell more meat. Improve their website. Get on the phone to sell to more butchers.
In fact, she already knows of one who they don’t deal with, but who sells specialist breeds. David doesn’t understand how she knows about this new chap … as Pip points out, it’s just through talking to people other than those on his farm, or close family:
[David] “Are you saying that I should get out more?”
[Pip] “Well, it wouldn’t hurt”
(hurrah! Someone at last said it)
Counsellor? Nope – call in the vet.
Shula pops round to see Ruth. She reckons David looked “pretty dreadful” when she saw him before.
She’s worried that David is overacting to the setbacks they’re having at Brookfield lately. That’s all part of farming – so maybe something else is going on for David.
Shula’s wondering if it’s because he saw ‘it’ happen,
[Shula] “To see his brother in-law die like that. It must have left him terribly scarred”
Ruth also had an inkling that there was more to David’s mood than just low milk yields, but her plan had been to hope that it would just go away (!).
So, Shula and Ruth reckon David might have post-traumatic stress. Which sounds like a quite reasonable diagnosis.
[Ruth] “He’s just got nothing left Shula. No strength, no resources”
So their next step?
Get the very in to have a chat with David, as he’d never agree to a counsellor.
Brilliant.
(but yes – the local vet is Alistair – who David does respect, and will probably listen to. I’m just taking the Michael).
1 comment:
Richard Dadd
Killed his dad.
It's hard to go farther
Than killing your father.
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