Live From The Polytunnel, Reflecting On TV Appearance

I'm recording this in the polytunnel. I'm just sitting in the doorway. It's a little bit breezy so I thought I would reduce the noise of the wind. This morning I've done the calves with Phil. Everybody was good this morning and had a bit of a cuddle with 39 as usual and then I've been cutting down some thistles because they've just grown like topsy in the chicken run, so I've been in there doing that this morning. Lulu escaped and I don't know how she's getting out, and she does it whilst I'm there, but I just haven't seen her actually do it. I think she's standing on the roof of the chicken coop and jumping off, but I'm not sure. Anyway, she was out, but I managed to get her back in quite easily. She was stood near the gate, so I just opened the gate and let her wander back in. So they're all in now. I've just got one wheelbarrow left of thistle cuttings to put on the bonfire. I've watered all the stuff in the polytunnel. Everything else has been rained on, so that's okay, and I'll be heading off home shortly.

I've swept up after all the mess that the hens make when they get out, so hopefully it'll stay like that today. But yesterday, we—well, Chris mostly—was featured on Katie Piper's Weekend Escape, so episode 8 of season 1, and we filmed that mid-April, I think, in a really nice house in Buckinghamshire. I think it's on the market; I can't remember how much it was on the market for, about six million or something like that. Anyway, we had a great day with them. The celebrity guest was Joe Wicks, and the chef was Aldo Zilly, and he was lovely. He chatted to us, and I said to him at one point, "Oh, you do smell nice," and he said thank you. I said to Chris later, "I said, oh smell Aldo, he smells lovely." Obviously, Chris can't see him, so he had a sniff, and he said, "Oh, that's nice," and Aldo said, "Oh yeah, that's Hermes." But he was very nice, and Chris was interviewed by Katie Piper, and then he had a makeover by Michael Douglas, who is a celebrity hairdresser. He is the partner of Davina McCall as well.

So yeah, we had a lovely time there, and it was great to see the finished edit. We both thought it was really good. There was not much cut out really; I think it was pretty much they'd filmed it. They were very organized; it was very planned. Katie had a list of questions as prompts, and yeah, just I think pretty much what you see is what we did on the day. So where Chris is being interviewed, if you do go and watch it on ITV, I was just sat around the corner, so I could see Katie's face on, and so I was just sat on a chair around the corner. Then when they were doing the dancing bit, there's a door behind Tacky’s—I think that's what she's called—she was lovely as well, and I was sat on a sofa just out of sight. But yeah, it was a brilliant experience, and we've had lots of really nice compliments and feedback on Chris's appearance on the show and his makeover.

Unfortunately, that makeover has not lasted really because his hair started growing, so he's back to a number one all over again. But yeah, it was a good opportunity to talk about Men's Sheds as well, and that was sort of the main reason that Chris was there. Obviously, guide dogs too, but Men's Sheds was the primary reason, and I think this week is—I'm not sure—it's mental health week or loneliness week, something like that, but it all ties in with the premise of a Men's Shed, which is to help people who are feeling isolated or lonely. Men's Sheds originally was set up for men who'd been bereaved, so it was older men, retired men usually, whose wife had died, and they didn't know what to do with themselves. Doing something creative and kind of DIY related was a good way to get back into a different kind of life, but one that was less isolated.

So yeah, that was fun yesterday. I didn't see the programme when it went live because I was here helping with the calves, and so I watched it on catch up when I got back, but Chris had listened to it at half past eight. But yeah, we've had lots of nice feedback from people who've watched it, so that's lovely. So if you do want to watch it, have a look online, ITV, and it was on Sunday at half eight, but I think if you just Google Katie Piper Weekend Escape, it comes up with a page with all the different episodes on, and we were on episode eight.

So I'm just going to tidy up, put a few things away, take the wheelbarrow into the paddock, and tip the cuttings that I've done onto the bonfire, and then I'm going to head home because I've got things I need to do today, and we're at the shed tonight. So the shed that I'm a director of is being renovated. We're probably three quarters of the way there now, so tonight we've got a paint party. So we're going to be painting the social area, and we're doing it a sage green, so we're trying to put in as many hours as we can now to get this finished so that we can open.

So that's it, that's my day today. So thanks for listening, I'll talk to you soon. Bye for now.