I have to admit that getting these big black boots have changed the trajectory of life on the farm.

Farmers all over must be shaking their heads over how long it took me to get boots fitting for a farm and a muddy pasture rife with manure.

I walked out to the pasture this morning, and took a bunch of photos that I really love. And when I get back to the house, I can just lift my feet out of them an go onside.

Walking around in these boots, with my well-bred and expensive Yellow Lab trotting along of me, I did feel a bit like British royalty, I couldn’t help but think of all those photos of Queen ELizabeth and  Philip hunting in the hills around Scotland, they spend their summers at Windsor Castle.

I also thought of Hugh Bonnerville, who plays Robert, Lord of Downton Abbey.

In one episode I remember, Robert comes walking down the big staircase in his hunting boots, gorgeous Yellow Lab at his heels. Servants scurried all over the dining room as he approached.

After breakfast he and his hiking and shooting buddies — all wearing boots, all with Yellow Labs trotting alongside, eager to get their birds – set out into the woods to shoot

I was, for a few seconds there, my own Robert, Lord of Bedlam Farm. This reverie was ended abrsuptly when Maria realized  that I was barefoot in those boots and it was cold, and my recently operated on toe didn’t have the bandage on it was supposed to have.

“Hey,” she shouted, “get in the house and get that bandage on!” The bubble burst, the dream lost all its air.

Abashed, I went inside to get my bandage on.

But the boots have definitely change my perspective. I might soon be wearing one of those fancy wool British hats, and I already have a walking stick.