The soggy shooting season is over, bar a bit of duck shooting. It shouldn't be, as it would make more sense to start it a couple of weeks later-which is what most people do anyway in order to give the poults more time to mature-and finish shooting pheasants and partridges in mid February. It's one of those small, common-sense changes that require a change in the law.
A government keen to impress the rural vote would be wise to consider doing so. Despite the rain, it was an excellent shooting season. There were many more wild birds thanks to the fine weather last summer and, these days, our shooting kit is able to cope with most of what the weather can throw at us.
* Subscribe to Country Life and save
The vet's waiting room is no place for a terrier. The other patients this morning include a gerbil, two cats and three other dogs. After a lot of barking and a near incident with a tabby cat, Cracker and I have been banished. I'm now waiting and writing this in the car park outside the surgery.
We survived-or at least the other patients did- as we were whisked through the waiting room. Cracker, our Lucas terrier, has ‘done' her cruciate ligament. Three months of no exercise is the prescription. The local rabbits will be delighted.
* Follow Country Life on Twitter
-
Rodel House: The Georgian marvel in the heart of the Outer HebridesAn improving landlord in the Outer Hebrides created a remote Georgian house that has just undergone a stylish, but unpretentious remodelling, as Mary Miers reports. Photographs by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
-
380 acres and 90 bedrooms on the £25m private island being sold by one of Britain's top music producersStormzy, Rihanna and the Rolling Stones are just a part of the story at Osea Island, a dot on the map in the seas off Essex.
