Dead cow in the boot. Or trunk if preferred.

An enjoyable day out.

We drove up to Telford to collect a quarter of a Dexter cow from Steve Rawlings. After previous unpleasantness associated with the M5, we went both ways via the Forest of Dean and Hereford, which is far more civilised and probably no slower. The Xantia appreciated the run too - first significant journey since I stopped commuting to Swindon last November.

We stopped for breakfast at the Florence Country Hotel, which was very civilised: full English and a pot of tea, accompanied by the Home Service on their radio, which is as it should be. Especially on a Saturday, which is a particularly excellent day of programming (which is more than can be said for the programming of the hotel's website ;)

A long and friendly chat about life, politics, food and farming; an enjoyable drive home through the sprouting of Spring leaves and the occasional clump of bluebells, but I'm not sure we'll deal with the meat tonight. A long day, and doing bloody things with a cleaver (and, more to the point, reorganising the freezers) is more than we can face before the morning. Particularly right now as [stop press] we have just had a ( demonstration of the physiology of the local avian population )

We haven't (yet) found the head...