Saturday 1 April 2017

Daffodils & Lambing...continuing

We are very lucky here that we have such a huge variety of daffodils all around the house, cottage and in the gardens and orchards. Many were planted more than half a century ago and the smaller 'wild' ones, the Tenby daffodils probably well over a 150 years ago when the 'big house' was built. They have naturalised in all sorts of corners and are to my mind much the loveliest of them all. Because of the great variety we have the daffodil season goes on for many weeks with some quite finished by now but others just beginning to open. These ones in the photo were planted about 60 years ago on the bank that my kitchen window looks out onto. When they have finished flowering Farmer says that is when the all important grass starts growing after the winter, a piece of family folklore passed on from his father who planted them.

Lambing continues without any further alarums such as we had a few days ago. The poor ewe is recovering from her caesarean but is taking a bit of persuading when it come to adopting a lamb. She will get there in the end but it does tend to be a bit of a tedious process involving tethering her so that she cannot escape the lamb and it can suckle safely. The rest of the flock is doing well and producing good strong lamb; the lamb in the photos below is only seconds old but was soon up on its feet and with the ewe talking to it in the rumbling mutter that ewes give their lambs after she had licked it clean. The cleaning with a rough tongue is all part of the process of getting it to stand up and then find its way to milk bar. It will soon be dry and soft and dancing around the polytunnel with the others.

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