With the rise in the price of fuel, BT's advice to 'increase your productivity with home working' couldn't have come at a better time - although there is the small matter of heating your office space of course! They say that recent research by IBM and the Economist Intelligence Unit found that 15 per cent of small businesses in Europe with home workers, had started the practice in the last year. Since April 2003, they say, businesses of all sizes have been legally obliged to consider employee requests to work from home.

They believe that home working can increase productivity by eliminating travel to and from work and that employees are in a familiar and comfortable environment. They also think that absences from work are reduced and that it improves work-life balance.

Hmm! I've worked from home for nearly 20 years and yes, I would agree there are very obvious benefits and I do think that without the travel and anyone to talk to, apart from the cat, I do get a lot done in a comparatively short time. The down side is that there is no one to talk to which is an important part of working life. I'm also less convinced about the work-life balance too because unless you are very firm, work spills into your everyday life and the edges blur. But overall I think it works well for me and also many fellow smallholders. The big problem is that the rest of the world don't necessarily think you are working. Friends phone up for 'favours' - 'can you just go and pick up some livestock for me?' Er no, let's pretend I am actually in a real live office shall we? Could I do it then? No. Friends turn up to have tea and seem surprised when you have to evict them after a decent interval. And animals just don't appreciate working from home at all! If you are on the smallholding, they would like your attention! I've become very good at this over the years and have the 'system' down to a fine art. Everything is fed, turned out, made comfortable for the day first thing in the morning and then, when the kind people who help me with the ponies in the evening arrive, I stop work and devote time to the smallholding. This gives me the day to 'work from home'.

If you don't do this, then you end up working long hours into the night to make up for lost hours during the day. But on nice days in the spring and autumn and on many days in the summer, I take my tea and lunch into the garden and sit outside, surrounded by hopeful hens, and watch the ponies and the birds for half an hour. That makes it all worth it.

Ponies on Parade

I had a really fantastic experience recently when the welsh cob, Jade and I, took part in the London Riding Horse Parade in Hyde Park. It was utterly bizarre driving a trailer down Baker Street and through Marble Arch and I was very pleased it wasn't me that was doing it. I was navigating and I only made one mistake and we didn't argue too much about it! Jade was very unbothered about travelling through London and was laid back about riding down Rotten Row, led by two Police horses. I found it very strange to be riding on a perfect sand track towards the London Eye and with the Post Office Tower clearly visible, surrounded by roads and red buses. It was a once in a lifetime experience for us and I am glad we did it. It will prepare me for my judging duties at the City Farm Show at Capel Manor, Enfield Middlesex, on the 24 September. I did write about this fabulous event last year which I thoroughly enjoyed and I am very much looking forward to helping with this event. If you see me there, please do come and say hello!