Endless rain. . . . .

We are really making up for the kind weather in January with a vengeance! Mud, mud and more mud. The sheep are due to start to lamb in about 10 days and I can see we will be bringing them in under cover to the buildings early this year. Normally they are out in the day and in at night to make keeping an eye on them easier, but this wet would hardly do a new born lamb any good at all. The sheep better stay in the warm and dry for a bit from the end of this week.

It was so wet at the weekend our local “point to point” (horse racing) got cancelled. The overnight rain on the Thursday before did for racing on the Saturday; the course was water logged. No hope of getting any vehicles in and out let alone racing. A very kind neighbour is allowi lamb ng my horse to graze as small paddock of his; so when we do have a few lambs they will have a nice field to go onto, with a bit of grass, which has not been cut up to a muddy mess with horse hooves.

The frogs seem to appreciate the wet and mild as all the ditches on the hill are full of frog spawn. I keep meaning to pop up and get a little bit to put in a bowl for when my granddaughter comes over. After it is hatched it can go in one of my ditches here in the garden; try and increase my frog population.

The chickens are now at liberty again. They were extremely confused for a few days and didn’t venture very far when first let out. They also seemed to be a bit phased as to where they should go at night as we want them to use the shed for a bit longer until I have purchased a new hen house. The old henhouse really needs a new water proof roof and a bit of TLC. The hens have now come back into lay, which is a blessing. We had lovely fresh eggs for pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. ( I must say we were quite over indulgent with strawberry pancakes for supper that night !! But they were jolly yummy! Recipe on the recipe page).