We have had a letter from our Milk lady (or, as she describes herself 'Milk Maid') to say that she is retiring.   She was 71 in June, and the batteries on her electric milk float are giving up the ghost.

I suspect that Dairy Crest, who are succeeding to the milkround, will not supply neatly hand-written bills (in two colours of ink) and I suspect Steve, our new milkman's ability to predict snow accurately will be less efficient.  And if he retires, I bet he won't send us a letter ending "God bless, with love from..."   But maybe he will.  We will wait and see.  

Probably his milk will be homogenised too, but I must confess, I rather like homogenised milk. Sometimes I used to buy it secretly from a supermarket and smuggle it home to drink without the milk maid seeing me.   And if he really does deliver it before 8am, it will probably stay fresher too (though I am dubious about that one.  Maybe 8am in the summer.  If he does his whole round before break of day in February, the milk will be frozen and he will probably bust all his milkbottles sliding down the steep hills on the ice.  But once again, we shall see.