Fun Day
By Penny Whatley
Setting off to Farmborough, near Bath with three dogs, food, coffee maker and treasure hunt paraphernalia, I eyed the skies and hoped that the rain would stay away and we would have a fine dry day. Apart from a few spots of rain the weather was kind to us. Arriving at Tilley Farm I realised what an ideal setting this was for a Fun Day. We had the use of a huge room with settees, kitchen facilities and even a TV in the corner. Everyone had worked so hard to make this a day people would enjoy and our hosts, Sarah and Anthony made sure everyone felt welcome. The atmosphere was one of complete relaxation which transferred itself to the dogs.
Belinda and I set off to put the treasure hunt clues out and it wasn’t until we were well on our way that I realised what a large farm this was. We were told that we could let the dogs off the lead in fields without horses in.
Rob had Monte and Emma so I took my three who thought they had died and gone to heaven with such vast areas to run in. Rob had said he’d give us ten minutes and then send the party out to hunt for the clues. Belinda had earlier been taken out on the farm bike for a guided tour of our route but doing it on a bike at high speed and doing it on foot are two different things but we had some good laughs on the way, trying to find stiles, gates, places where we and the dogs could squeeze through and trying to find suitable places to tie objects and clues to, all the time aware that the search party could actually catch us up before we could get all the clues out. Up hill and down dale, through elephant grass, nettles and boggy patches we went, finally arriving back at the farm in sore need of a cuppa.
Perhaps the clue “To inform on someone” and tying a bunch of grass to a post wasn’t my brightest idea but every body got the answer but no one found the grass! Hardly surprising! Belinda and I had also done a quiz to go with the treasure hunt but no one got the right answer to the question “What publication is printed in more languages than the Bible” The Ikea catalogue. Fancy no one knowing that! Congratulations go to Vicki and Andrew for winning the Hunt.
Lunch followed then we all went down to the ménage where the agility course had been laid out. Weaving around cones with potatoes balanced on rackets brought much hilarity to the proceedings as did going over the jumps and trying to get the dogs to go through the tunnel. Rosemarie and her Sheltie excelled, Poppet just trotted through without a moments hesitation. The Maremmas weren’t quite so keen and some flatly refused, time faults for this were gained.
It was lovely to see a few people who turned up to support the fun day who we’d not seen before. Another lady came to find out about Maremmas and to put her name on the puppy list, while others who already had a Maremma wanted another one. The dogs were all beautifully behaved and enjoyed their day out as I’m sure their owners did.
Our sincere thanks go to Anthony and Sarah for allowing us to use their beautiful farm and for their superb hospitality and thanks also to their staff who were so helpful and friendly. My particular thanks to Tina who gave me some shampoo to wash Indi with after she rolled in fox’s poo!!!
Driving back home via Glastonbury, I recall being pleased that it wasn’t a week later when the festival would be on, on reflection now, even further pleased because of the atrocious weather.