Strides out.

Out with Bob along the lane. He strides out purposefully. We're accompanied by his shaggy shadow. A sure sign summer is nearly here.

Wild boar about this morning. Bob is kept on his lead. From time to time he turns around to make sure I'm still there. He does a reasonably good job at hiding his impatience.

A surprise at the crossroads. The first calves of the year lying sunbathing in the early morning warmth. Three, possibly four, of them being guarded by two rather proprietorial aunts. Bob demonstrates his bravery by moving behind Angus on the side away from the cows. He gives me his  '' You deal with them ! " look.

Off to the greengrocers for some pineapples. Sophie, who has spent the early part of the day staring at the roast pork in the kitchen, joins us. At the bakers she is delighted to discover that there are malformed croissant slivers that are still warm from the oven. Beat that if you can ! Clearly, this is the best day ever.

Wild gentians making an appearance on the verges.

Here's a portion of an eye opening article in this weeks Economist. Walmart for the casket and a whole new take on the phrase 'Pizzas to go ' :

''In North America the modern undertaker’s job is increasingly one of event-planning, says Sherri Tovell, an undertaker in Windsor, Canada. Among the requirements at her recent funerals have been a tiki hut, margaritas, karaoke and pizza delivery. Some people want to hire an officiant to lead a “life celebration”, others to shoot ashes into the skies with fireworks. Old-fashioned undertakers are hard put to find their place in such antics. Another trend—known as “direct cremation”—has no role for them at all.

Besides having to offer more diverse services, the trade also faces increased competition in its products. Its roots are in carpentry. “You’d buy an expensive casket and the funeral would be included in the price,” remembers Dan Isard, a funeral consultant in Phoenix, Arizona. The unwritten agreement was that the dead would be treated with dignity and that families would not ask if there was an alternative to the $1,000 or $2,000 coffin, or whether embalming was really needed. The business has something in common with prostitution, reflects Dominic Akyel of the University of Cologne. It is legal (as prostitution is in some places) but taboo, “and certainly not to be discussed or haggled over”.

The undertaker used to be able to rely on a steady stream of customers who asked few questions and of whom he (and it was usually a he) would ask few in return. Protestant or Catholic? Open coffin or closed? And, in some parts of the world, burial or cremation? A new generation of customers, though, no longer unthinkingly hands over its dead to the nearest funeral director. They are looking elsewhere, be it to a new breed of undertaker, to hotel chains that “do” funerals, or—for their coffin or urn—to Amazon or Walmart.

“It’s happening in restaurants, nightclubs, wedding venues, country clubs and it’s very dangerous,” Bill McReavy, an undertaker from Minneapolis, told his vigorously nodding peers at the annual gathering of the American National Funeral Director Association (NFDA) in Boston last autumn. The NFDA expects the industry’s revenue to stagnate between 2016 and 2021".