Come and spend a summer’s afternoon with us on Sunday June 13th, enjoy a home-made cream tea, and meet all our pigs, including Scarlett, our diva house pig!

We’ve arranged the afternoon to raise some funds for the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, and to give all our friends and neighbours and visitors an opportunity to enjoy a relaxing ‘piggy’ afternoon!

Entrance is £7 for adults, £3 for children or £20 for a family ticket for 2 adults and 3 children

DISCOUNTED ADVANCE TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE – PHONE 01743 340222/821878 to book

This includes a lovely cream tea and visiting the pigs.

Toot Sweets are having a traditional confectionary and ice cream stall, and there will be face painting and our own rare breed sausage hot dogs (small additional charge)

You can take part in a pig quiz and a ‘guess the weight of the pig’ competition, and win some piggy prizes!

The event takes place at Pigsinclover on Sunday 13th June from 2.30pm to 5pm.

Please don’t bring dogs, and no unaccompanied children!

on Sunday 13th June

from 2.30pm to 5pm

Tickets are £7 adults and £3 children, or £20 for an adult ticket (2 adults and 3 children)

This event is for OPEN FARM SUNDAY and to raise funds for the Rare Breeds Survival Trust

They’ll also be reare breed sausage hot dogs on the barbeque, and a traditional sweet stall, courtesy of Toot Sweets with real ice cream and candy floss

Have a look at the event page on facebook for more information – ‘Tea with the Pigs’, and whilst your there, don’t forget to become a fan of ‘Scarlett the Pig’. If she gets 1000 fans I’ll be making an even bigger donation to the RBST

In London, she visited a barber shop

Trafalgar Square

and in Shrewsbury she went to  Kingsland Grange School to meet the children

We got to London mid-afternoon, and as we’d not managed to find Regents Park on the way, we had to take Scarlett for walk to stretch her legs, and the nearest open space was Trafalgar Square. She must of had her photo taken a thousand times. Typical reaction from passers by was screaming ‘OMG – it’s a PIIIIIIIIGGGGGG!!!!’ and  running, camera in hand to take loads of pictures, or there was the very polite ‘what’s that, a dog? No, a pig. Can’t be, must be a dog. Excuse me – is that a pig?’ then ‘would you mind if I took her photo?’ Of course we didn’t mind, it was fun, and Scarlett wasn’t fazed a bit.

At 6.20 we arrived at the red carpet, dressed in all our sparkly finery, including Scarlett who had a specially adapted silver sequined harness for the occasion.

The press went wild. Not for us – for Scarlett. And she loved it. A couple of TV crews interviewed her and she performed beautifully. Bill Bailey kept saying to her how intelligent pigs are, and then Emma Thompson was there, fussing up Scarlett and they were both whisked away to have their picture taken by the world’s press. And that was the headline today – Emma Thompson and her porky date!

I don’t think there is another pig in the world who would have behaved as well as Scarlett last night, she’s very special – and our next job is to teach her synchronised swimming!

http://itn.co.uk/4b90a02c119fe2f5b1e77994bfca84c7.html

You can see them here http://photoskill.biz/?Action=_VC&id=48028450&ppp=0&ppwd=fm9568fd

I’ve invited them to visit again one the ground is drier, and I’m going to seed one of the pens so it can be used as a grassy photographic studio.

My daughter described the experience as like Christmas – lots of guests, the house spotlessly clean, great food in the fridge, and lots of sitting round the kitchen table drinking wine.

Why did we do it? Of course, the publicity will be great – millions of people will see our pigs and may like to come visit on a pig experience day. And it tested us – we were really stretched by the whole thing. We put our heads up above the parapet, and the view was great. Just hope we don’t get shot down in flames by the edit!

TV and the media is such a huge part of everyone’s lives, and to see it from the other side is fascinating. To share how the programmes are made is an education, and perhaps there’s a valid argument for teaching some form of media studies in school from an early age, to teach our children that TV is all about the representation of the subject matter – and that all broadcast information should seen as a subjective interpretation of the facts.

This show should be broadcast on BBC 1 in August. Oh, and Scarlett is appearing on Pet Nation on Sky 1 in May, BGT later the same month, and weirdly – Korean News next month.

So yesterday we were all up before first light to feed the pigs as we wanted to be in London in time to have a leisurly breakfast and a rehearsal. It didn’t happen. At 12 noon we were still on the road, stuck in horrible West London traffic, unable to nip down any side streets to avoid the snarl-ups in case we got stuck with the trailer. How does life go on in London when you have to spend so much of your life in your car? I’m sure it wasn’t so bad when I lived there 15 years ago. And where are all the invisible workmen, who start all the roadworks but never finish them? I think I saw one man on a digger – and he was reading a newspaper.

We finally arrived at the studios over an hour late, but it didn’t really matter as the rehearsal had been a disaster. ‘I’m going to have to rethink the whole item’ said the assistant producer. ‘The pony wouldn’t count, the rabbit wouldn’t jump, and the dog just ran round and round in circles’. In a funny way, this made us less nervous – so what if Scarlett wouldn’t dance, as least she wouldn’t be the only animal to get stage fright

We walked into the studio following the runner assigned to us, and Alex’s face froze when she saw John Barrowman on the stage, singing. ‘Captain Jack’ she gasped’ Now I didn’t know who Captain Jack was, but I knew who John Barrowman was alright. The goodlooking one off Torchwood. But Alex, being 8 years old, knew him from Dr Who. As soon as he finished, Katherine Jenkins arrived for a rehearsal, looking so impossibly beautiful and glamorous, even better in real life than on the screen.
Then the audience came in, filling the seats, and ready to be entertained. Tickets for these shows are free, and there seemed to be a lot of regulars.
They recorded Fridays show, and some segments which were to be dropped into the live show, then at 4.30 there was just time for a quick rehearsal. It was awful -Scarlett wouldn’t move at all, all she wanted to do was to eat the hay and seed on the floor which had been dropped during the filming of some chickens earlier in the day. ‘Quick, get a hoover’ shouted the producer ‘No time, no time’ was the answer – ‘we’re on air in 10, 9, 8…’ And then there Scarlett was, being led down the sparkly stairs by Alan Titchmarsh himself, infront of 5 million viewers on live TV! She behaved beautifully – a real pro and I was proud of her. Steve grabbed her lead and ran round the back of the stage as he’d been instructed, ready for his entrance stage left. The pony came on and wowed the crowd – she could count! She could multiply! How, I’ve absolutely no idea, but it was a really good trick. Then it was Steve’s turn, just time for one question from Alan, then the sound of Hotstuff rolling across the stage and Scarlett danced – after a fashion – but at least she moved. Alan Titchmarsh started laughing – he was laughing even more when the rabbit didn’t jump and the little dog jumped off the stage.

After the show was over, we were welcomed into the green room, just time for a couple of glasses of champagne and some rather nice sandwiches before the long journey home. As I said to the producer, we would have paid good money for such an excellent day out, and I think Scarlett enjoyed it as much as we did, loving the attention and the fussing.

Well, stop right there. Pigs AREN’T pets, they’re livestock animals, in in the eyes of the law have to be treated as such. Rules and regulations apply, as with any other farm animal, even for the smallest, cutest micro pig.

The basics are this – if you want to keep a pig you need to have a holding number, and you can get this by contacting your local Rural Development office. You can only transport your pig using suitable transport, which must be cleaned and disinfected after use (so not the back seat of your family car), and EVERYTIME you take your pig out, even if its just to the vets, you have to fill in a movement form, and then you can’t move it again for 20 days after that.

There are some expemptions for pet pigs, as you can get a special licence to take your pig for a walk, as long as you stick to your designated route, and you have permission from your local Animal Health office.

Then there’s feeding. Yes, pigs will eat anything, but no, you can’t feed them any kitchen scraps whatsoever. None. Not even if you regularly scrap your plates into your dogs bowls, you can’t do this for a pig.

They need a warm bed, space to root, lots of water – especially in Summer as they only have sweat glands in their noses, so need to make wallows to lie in– and as the mud dries on their skin, it cools them down. And importantly, they need company. Pigs are very, very gregarious animals, and if they haven’t got another pig for company they will become your shadow, and want lots of affection and closeness.

Still want one? Scarlett, our mangalitza lives in the house with us. She has her own bed in the utility room, and is able to wander out into the orchard all day if she chooses. I’ve given up trying to keep a nice lawn there, as between her and the dogs it looks more like a ploughed field than a garden. She’s pretty much housetrained now, and she bosses all the dogs around. In the evening, on the floor in front of the log burner, are 2 Airedales and a labrador. Scarlett is usually on my husbands lap, watching the TV.

PS A personal Message to Piers Morgan…..
Thanks for the mention in this weeks Sunday mail, where you were commenting on the Strange Life of Piers Morgan -’one day judging a trampolining pig, the next day interviewing the Prime Minister’ From the sublime to the ridiculous you could say, the Pig, of course, being sublime!