At last …

The last lamb has been born; Easter weekend.  What a little scrap of a thing she is.  Her mother has no milk so we are bottle feeding her.  This is now three times a day.  We have turned her and mum out into a field with the other sheep just up the road as the ewe was distressed away from the flock. So now one or other of us has to trail up to the field with a bottle of milk.  First feed 7 am.  With a little persistence “Daisy”, as GOS has named her,  is doing really well.  It was touch and go the first couple of days.  Little granddaughter will enjoy doing this when she visits.

My highlight this week has been to have a friend down from Edinburgh for a couple of nights to stay over.  I have been able to show her some of our countryside at it’s best.  On Friday I arranged for a group of us to walk the two hills behind the house with her.  She is a great “hiker”.  Six of us and three dogs had a lovely day walking the footpaths that join and transverse the two “commons”. At our picnic spot in the bottom of a little sheltered wooded valley my friend was excited to see a red kite wheeling round only feet above us in a gap in the tree tops.  She said she had never been so close to one before.  They live by scavenging so we reckoned it had spotted the sandwiches! We walked not far short of 9 mile and in that distance had been through various habitats and environments; ancient woodland, open moorland, cultivated farmland……..  ending our trek walking down the steep  flower lined lane back to the house;  comparing the colloquial names for the various wildflowers as we went.

I am away for a couple of days myself now so will write again on my return….