A farmer's wife shares her humorous look at life

MY granddaughter and I spent the morning at market watching two bulls and a cull cow be sold. Early morning she had made the trips in with Landrover and trailer. Now she wanted to see how much they made.

Jessica is fascinated by the variety of body signals used by the buyers clustered round the main ring, to indicate to the auctioneer that they are in the bidding.

"Mamma he's using his thumb" she would whisper as an apparently disinterested buyer twitched his thumb to raise the price for a clean cow. "Mamma he's winking and he's nodding" she informed me in dramatic whispers.

Luckily perched as we were on the top row of benches in the auditorium that makes up a sale ring, no-one could hear her over the mooing cattle and auctioneers patter.

I enjoyed the nifty movements of the man in with the bulls. Not all of the bulls were going to amble docilely around whilst their fate and price was sealed.

Some were determined to have a go at that fellow who was giving them a swift prod to keep moving. Some of them nearly had him as well, much to Jessica's delight.

Lunch at the market is an undiscovered foodie's delight. Yesterday's roasts were sirloin of beef and pork loin. The crackling heavenly.