...not in that way!

5.00pm – I go into the field to exercise the dogs for half an hour. I get out there and find three of our four chickens out there poking about – not good. They must have found a gap in the fence. Make mental note to find and plug it. The dogs charge about like mad things. Lola decides when enough is enough and comes in.

5.30pm – LM and dogs in house. Dogs lying on the floor panting. Happy. I take my camera outside in the evening sun for some photos. Take a few shots, come back inside to process.

6pm - DM says “there is a strange woman coming up our path”. She rings the doorbell and after a few moments he hurtles back through the house yelling “the field is on fire”. I fiddle around in the cupboard and find the fire blanket and the extinguisher and hurtle down the field after him. There are cars littered over our little lane and a gaggle of people stamping on flames as best as they can. I launch the extinguisher and the blanket. The actual flames get put out but there is still a lot of smouldering.

6.10pm – there are blue flashing lights and bee-bas in the lane and the trusty fire brigade turn up. I dash back up the hill to the house to get a camera. The dogs are standing on the wall barking like mad at the firemen until their hose comes out when JD suddenly decides they are the bestest, most exciting men he’e ever come across. They douse everything down good and proper with water to prevent any flare-ups (sadly before I arrived back on the scene with camera). DM has huge gleam in his eye where he’s been allowed to use the firemen’s hose. I snap a couple of pics. They jump back into their truck and head off leaving us and our neighbours in the lane.

What happened between 5.30pm when I went indoors and 6pm when we first got news of the fire? Some f*ckwit threw a lit cigarette out of his or her car into the hedgerow and all of a sudden our world is being turned upside-down. Had it happened at night, there might not have been another passer-by for several hours and our whole field might have ended up as charcoal. Thank goodness for the kindness of strangers, who stopped and tried to help – if anyone out there in cyberspace helped, then thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Thank goodness we actually owned a fire blanket and an extinguisher. Thanks to the local fire brigade who were completely unfazed by what they saw as a very minor incident.