October 28, 2024
Community

Muddy Boots

Whilst making coffee the other morning, I idly asked Caitlin, who helps me with social media, if she remembered her job interview here. She nodded, smiling, so I asked her if there were any questions which she had found unexpected. Her reply was that she had not expected to be asked  if she had any welly boots.

I actually  think it is quite a useful question as life and work at Highclere depends very much on what is happening outside. It is perhaps a contrast to the fictional family of Downton Abbey who are always immaculately dressed on all occasions with polished shoes, coiffured hair and often sitting perfectly upright on a sofa asking for a cup of tea or something stronger.

In reality, the weather is often the main topic of conversation at Highclere because we actually have to deal with it day to day. For example, if it is, as usual, raining we need to know if we have enough shelter for visitors and tearooms with staff for hot drinks?

The gardeners survey the skies to determine whether they can mow the lawns and the farm needs to know if it is too wet for them to drill the fields with seed. Are the gutters and hoppers on the Castle unblocked, is the passageway outside the gift shop flooding,  do the horses need rugs and should they be in the stable or out in pasture and how are the car parks holding up and  perhaps the car parkers may well need a round of hot chocolate or similar..

Therefore a pair of wellies is very helpful for much of everyday life here and, it seems, throughout the year. Indoor computers and emails are just one part of any job or role.

Caitlin did indeed have a pair of wellies and she did join Team Highclere. Given she has her own horse, she kindly helps bring horses in or out and takes the dogs for a walk with me which is a good way of having a meeting.

Indeed it has rained on so many days this year that wellies are quite necessary on almost all walks –  the ground is very claggy. There is, however, something life enhancing about squelching through mud – that gluggy sound as you slowly pick each foot out or, if it is very muddy, the hilarious challenge of not leaving a welly boot behind you in the mud and laughing as you nearly overbalance.

It is a link to childhood, to the delight of squishing and squeezing mud, of making mud pies and then pouring it back, oozing with a satisfying squidge.

My nephew

Apparently exposure to soil bacteria in mud (Mycobacterium Vaccae) stimulates the immune system and causes the brain to release serotonin, the endorphin used to regulate mood to help us all relax so it really is good for you. It is such simple play but so important to just let children explore their world  – they need to be able to do that in an unrestricted way and gain their own experiences. Looking at screens shut in bedrooms or  looking at iPads in a buggy offers no direct experience of the natural world.  Slip and slide through mud, find your balance and fall over – that is uplifting .

Our Labradors instinctively know all this. I think Scooby sees mud as the equivalent of an open-air spa. A roll in the mud can be good for a dog’s skin or, of course, a horse’s skin and helps to repel insects. Pigs make a real bath of it, rubbing off irritating passengers such as ticks and lice and wallowing in the mud to regulate their body temperature.

My number 6 sister perfectly dressed (plus daughter)

English has many words for rain or drizzle or mud and, whilst it would be a treat to see the sun occasionally, mud is just as much fun if you let it.

The dictionary genius Susie Dent has reminded me of the word “plouter” which means to wade through mud and the joy of the expression from Northumberland “plodging through the clart”. So next time you are thunderplumped’  (soaked to the skin by large fat drops of rain) you can plodge through the  mud and laugh at its magical fun wearing wellies.