Countryside code

Hopefully with the weather improving more people will be able to get out and enjoy the countryside. Can I ask that people remember that fields are actually mostly a working environment. Would you walk into an office or factory and allow your dog to run everywhere or allow your children to pick up anything that is lying around and keep it? No of course you wouldn't but when people walk in the country that is exactly what they do. Talking to a local farmer he told me of the times he has had to tell people to get their dogs under control as they were chasing his cows, to be told the dogs were "just playing". Living next to a public footpath I have had dogs allowed to run into my garden to relieve themselves, children picking my flowers - "we thought they were wild flowers", bird feeders taken from trees. Those of us who live in the country welcome city dwellers who want to walk here - just remember the countryside isn't a theme park, it is where people live and work.