December 9th

I am not a happy chappy. I was cutting old rabbit fences away this morning and my ear is bleeding profusely. I detest that high tensile wire; when you cut it with the wire cutters it goes off like a coiled spring. It felt like I had been shot in the ear. I have also spent the last hour on the phone to India which is your only course of action if you want to report a fault with your phone to BT-so much for shopping local!
We had a very successful committee meeting on Sunday. The only problem was Drew Ainslie and myself did not make the meeting. We were stuck on the A9 for 5 hours because two horses had been involved in an accident. I felt sorry for some of the elderly people in their cars but why the police did not back us up to the junction and let us away I will never know. Another case of can’t do Britain!
I have just returned from a busman’s holiday in Devon. I was very kindly invited to shoot down there for two days. What impressed me most was how important the shooting community is to the local rural economy. On both days I was out, there were over seventy people there ranging from the Gamekeepers,  loaders, beaters, pickers- up and even a chef. It was very obvious that, from September through to  the end of January, the partridge and pheasant season is the main driver  for the hard earned cash that goes into the countryside of Devon.