Lambs? It’s about mud, mud more..
Mud sticks – it really does – and this week, there’s been a lot about.
It’s depressing wading through it, and difficult to feed everything cleanly without getting that sinking feeling…
The children are oblivious to the stuff and, instead of avoiding it, seem to make a beeline for it.
The smaller the child the quicker the mud travels up the inner leg – from a clod round the ankles to finishing with mud up to their middles.
But the waterproofs stop it getting through to their clothes and with a careful aim it’s entirely possible to use the hosepipe without giving them a cold shower.
The lapwings have returned to Ravenseat for the second time this year. We first spotted them three weeks ago, swooping and wheeling in the skies above us whilst we fed the sheep.
It must have been a premature migration as they disappeared just as the Beast from the East blizzards arrived.
So now, with not a blade of grass nor leaves on the trees, we are at least lucky enough to have the sounds of spring – the haunting cry of the curlew and the chatter of the lapwings – to accompany us.
The sheep, only a month off lambing, are getting heavy with their lambs and looking surprisingly well.
The children are poised to build the sheep hospital ready for the new arrivals – and with the Easter holidays falling exactly right, I shouldn’t be short of lambing assistants.