There’s a Questions & Answers section in the daily
newspaper and someone had enquired if any readers had seen a dog running out of
a butcher’s with a string of sausages. Some answered saying they’d seen similar
scenes but it sounds like it’s the kind of thing that only happens in The
Beano. However I can remember a farmer trying to catch a piglet as it trotted
along a path high above Todmorden. He caught it quite
easily and tucked it under a big thick coat then returned to a trailer parked
nearby.
I had my
little house in the countryside then and was used to seeing trailers of animals
being ferried around. I tried to ignore it as I know what it all leads up to
and, in ten years of walks around that area, I only met two farmers who treated
their animals well. I can recall one farmer pulling lambs in a trailer with
such speed they could were being thrown off their feet.
Anyway these
things stay in my mind and here is a painting which must have sprung from
seeing the piglet. It was one of those pink sunsets and shadows were cast long;
I’ve tried to catch the man’s shadow on the road (shadows are rarely easy to do.)
As a boy I
remember a cow getting out of the farmer’s field behind out house. It was
wandering around on the grass behind the clinic. The farmer arrived and fixed
the fence. As I had probably helped break the fence by climbing over it I
showed him where another hole for forming and he gave me a thick piece of
string as a thanks. That night I was lying in bed and could smell something. I
checked my underside of my shoes but they were clear of cow pooh. In the
morning the smell still lingered and it was that piece of string I’d left lying
on a shelf. Up until the age of about 6 I thought you could only be a farmer if
you were called Giles. I was pretty naive and thought men and women could only
marry if the man was taller and older.
If stuck put on a fez and paint
face...
Mildred can hardly look…
Time for a coffee before painting in
the piglet…
Here are some photos of the walk to
catch the sunset…