OK – I’m going to let you into a little secret. DM has more than a little of the look of Stan Laurel about him – at least, I think it’s Stan Laurel not Oliver Hardy! (He’s the skinny one – is that Stan?)

Now he’s going to kill me for that I reckon! The only reason for that revelation is that I wanted to link the caption to the photo and that’s the way I could do it…..and BTW it IS true!

So, today is the first day of our holiday and I’m in the field digging holes – thirteen of them to be precise. It’s backbreaking stuff and made infinitely more difficult because of the stony ground we have – you can’t take a shovel-full of earth out because the shovel just keeps hitting rock. You deal with that bit and two inches below, there’s another bit and so on and so forth. In other words, it’s hard, hard work.

It’s made harder by needing to keep watch of the dogs because it’s not 100% secure – there is a gap under the gate that’s big enough for a dog to scramble through which we need to get fixed and some of the fence is broken, though the fence is on top of a wall that in itself is a barrier. However, I saw a little dog get run over by a lorry a few years ago, when out walking with Toby and my Mum and that incident never leaves my consciousness. So, I’m paranoid about them going near the fence/gate.

So, I come into the house when it gets dark and most people would stop there and probably order a take away for dinner. Not me – I’m the stupid one who is up a ladder sorting out getting grout off tiles and silicone sealing a crack in the bathroom ready for the furniture to go back in after the flooring was laid. I’m the one screwing cupboards back to the wall at 7.15pm, after a day of gruelling hard work. Why do I do this? I dunno really – I am just completely madly hyperactive and can’t stop myself.

By the time, therefore when I decide I need a photo, the shot that I’d got in mind for today, that I even went out this morning and paid 4p for a prop for, was ditched in favour of this shot of the silicone sealer, which I could do on the work surface in the kitchen (while cooking dinner from scratch). The other shot, which will wait for another day, when I can be bothered to go to the studio and get DM to model for me, is still in my head.

Last year, I was taking photos for my calendar - they're all done this year (hurrah!)