Countryside living

I was going to write a terribly nostalgic post today about the wonders of living in the countryside, in particular the wonderful scents that you get on a warm summer evening, the deep heavy perfume of the honeysuckle being my one of my favourites. The world cannot be truly bad whilst it contains honeysuckle. Unfortunately, today has been a constant reminder of one of the other ‘scents’ of the countryside which has quite put me out of the mood of being descriptive and wondering outside smelling the roses and the honeysuckle. Instead I’ve had to dig around to find my oil burning tea light thingy and, upon discussion with mother, have been desperately trying to get the scent of sandalwood to fill the house, rather than the smell which currently does because, you see, today the farmers around the village have been muck-spreading. In vast quantities. And it reeks. Unfortunately it’s even worse inside the house today than it normally would be because I didn’t realize that they were going to be muck-spreading when I set off this morning, this lovely, sunny, warm summers’ morning, for my walk to the next village to get the paper with a neighbour. This morning which was so perfect for leaving the windows open upstairs and in the conservatory and getting some fresh air into the house (given how cold and miserable it has been recently). All I can say is I’m glad I hadn’t hung my washing out before we left or work would not have been best pleased with me in the morning. I’m not sure ‘eau de manure’ would be the most popular perfume in a supermarket…