June 6th, 7.30pm. Foothills of Snowdon. Rona has told Arwyn Owen we are coming to stay. Arwyn has little choice but to comply. He shows off his batchelor cooking skills using not one but two microwaves simultaneously to produce a high quality sausage and baked potato delight.
Arwyn, too, is a Nuffield Scholar and a more gentle gentleman you will never meet. He comes across as profoundly content. It is a good lesson in the reality of my “let’s farm without subsidy” theory. His hill farm has 2000 ewes that produce a gross margin per ewe in single digits. Profit relies fully on environmental schemes and direct subsidy. Going forward there is the tantalising promise of renewable energy income. Yet if Prime Minister Blanche withdrew payments, Arwyn’s farm wouldn’t exist and my conscience would find that hard to deal with. In the hills of North Wales subsidy is truly support.
Rona has also told Marnie Dobson from Cheshire - yet another Nuffield Scholar - that we were coming for lunch on Tuesday. I take full advantage and devour a sandwich of goat sausage ... yum. We see some goats ... they are like a charismatic version of sheep. Niche products scare me as they require a whole new skill set ... like talking to people.
I provide two big hugs, make my apologies and leave Rona and Marnie to talk direct marketing. I am a lone wolf again, pounding the tarmac in my camp car clothing. I head for Wiltshire, home of the Horn and a beatnik shepherd who did a deal with the devil and now has amazing banjo playing powers. Its a long way but as the brightness of the sun comes and goes I sing along to the best road trip song ever (best served loud) ...
"We may lose or we may win/ but we will never be here again /so open up I'm climbing in" ... genius
1 comment:
At last a song i know all the words to, i could have sung it to stop you falling asleep. Next time!
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