Amazingly, lambing is all but over, and all lambs are looking well. We are bottling feeding a few, but far less than some years, and we have only lost 3 ewes’ to birthing complications, all with the vet present. The ewe’s have all had reasonable milk levels, with only a few of the triplets needing additional bottle feeding.

The Shetland flock are now all lambed, and all lambs, so tiny on arrival, are now growing well. A moment of delight for them came when they managed to unlock the gate into the garden! Luckily, they were spotted quickly and were ably herded by Rosie back into the Triangle field.

Lottie, who is a trainee vet, and helped us with last year’s lambing, has been an amazing support these last weeks, and most definitely saw and experienced elements of lambing no textbook can quite convey! Boots, just as last year, has been excellent help also. He is also enjoying being up close with nature and his camera, as the photos below will demonstrate!

We may well have had showers over the last fortnight, some with hail, but the actual rain fall has lessened considerably, and the winds, although cold, have helped dry off the pastures a little. This means that we have been able to release the two other cattle herds from the barns. The two Young Stock herds are now combined, and the Suckler herd are also out. Before they left the barn, we had a heifer calf safely arrive.

In field 8, one cow, much to its and our chagrin, managed to discover a sink hole. The cow was lifted out thanks to some clever tractor work, and the hole is now filled. We think the hole must have been part of the digging done some 9 years ago to source the best site for the ground heat for the Business Park. That the hole, dug into thick blue clay, revealed itself now must be a consequence of the rains.

Now the animals are all out, our grazing plan is being implemented and we turn our thoughts to grass growth and plans for hay in the coming months. If we will need to buy this in, we will need to make agreements now. With the weather improved, we had plans to spray the fields later this week, but latest forecasts suggest we will now have to postpone to early May. We host the Foraging Course later this week which gives us an opportunity to ready for visitor events planned later in the year.

We’ve included so photos from the Village Fabrics’ opening – such a lovely day had by all.

Fordhall have taken some 6 cattle this week, and will be back for 14 more next week, along with 9 hogget sheep, and, to quote all ‘good’ reality shows these days, its important to state that these notes come in no particular order – yesterday we had the annual Soil Association and Red Tractor inspections, and passed, with one minor noncompliance for Red Tractor – our vets had not signed the health forms so this can easily be remedied.

Alice spotted two Hares and a Stag early one morning last week, and with Thistle not seeing them, their purpose wasn’t interrupted! The unofficial & official ponds continue to attract wildlife, and along the driveway, crocus and daffodils over, it is now filling with bluebells and Lady’s Smock. The Cow Parsley is out along the roads, so will reach our verges soon. The Hawthorn flowers are out, 2-3 weeks early, and the blossoms on the fruit trees and ornamental cherries are stunning, and thankfully have not been blown off their branches immediately, so we are still able to enjoy them! Finally, the swallows are now with us in numbers, and yesterday the first Cuckoo was heard, so we will know we are well settled into Spring.

A Prayer in Spring by Robert Frost

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfil.