SPRING LAMBS

Meet the latest additions to our farm. These two beautiful hebridean lambs were born this morning. Mum needed no help whatsoever, she just got on with the job and produced these healthy twins. 1 boy & 1 girl. .....perfect

GREEN SHOOTS !

Signs that Spring is on its way are definitely all around. The snowdrops and crocus's (crocii ??)are up and loads of daffodils ready to burst out.

The birds are busy looking for nesting sites, the boxes that Alan put up last year have lots of activity around them this year.

Our resident Robin was captured on film last year, by one of our guests from Australia and he sent me this copy at Christmas. I think its fab! He's coming again in July so I look forward to some more fantastic photos.

Milly continues to be an absolute treasure. The only problem is that she gets so excited when she sees anyone that she jumps up at them like a 'jack in the box'. We are trying to stop it but its not easy as everyone makes such a fuss of her!!

Home to the Sun

Mykela & Kirra with their very first snowman

Really sad, just waved goodbye to our dear friends from Perth, Australia. They have been here since the beginning of December and Mykela & Kirra were delighted when it snowed....they had never seen snow before! Their snowman sported a very attractive 'Freemantle Footbal Club' scarf! However I think, like all of us, they were glad when it had gone....enough was enough !!! It really curtailed their sight-seeing trips. It was great to have them here though and I hope it won't be too long before we see tem all again. Milly will really miss them, they made such a fuss of her.

Fortunately, none of the animals came to any harm during the freezing weather but it made a lot more work for Alan, trying to keep them with a constant water supply. The only fatalities we had were one fish and two frogs who perished in the pond.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr !!!!

Its sooooooooooooooo  cold !!!! I really feel sorry for the  animals at this time of year. Even though the sheep have nice woolly coats they still look forlorn in this weather.

Afraid I have bad news about the hens. You will remember that in my last blog I said that we had bought 8 new hens and now had plenty of lovely brown eggs for our visitors. Then a friend gave us 2 bantams so we had 13 hens in total. This week a fox has been on the rampage and we now only have 4 hens left................ What do the 'anti hunt' brigade think about that ??? ............Maybe they think that a few domestic hens, pecking around in the garden, are fair game !

Where Has the Summer Gone ??

I can't believe I haven't blogged since June....just where has the time gone?? The cottages have been pretty full all summer and we are still almost fully booked until end of October.
Milly hasn't been well and had to stay in at the vets for tests. Eventually found that she had picked up some sort of bacterial infection but, a course of antibiotics and £115 later she is finally OK again. She just loves all the visitors because everyone makes such a fuss of her.

Finally bought more hens as the demand for eggs was bigger than the supply so now we have plenty of eggs for everyone. We've also got 3 new piglets. Val, one of our regular guests, has christened them 'Itchy' 'Scratchy' & 'Patch' . Thats Patch, the one in the middle thats got its beady eye on you! Scary or what !!

The weather has been foul today, so much so that the Southport Airshow was cancelled.
The golfers staying in the cottages this week came back like drowned rats today, they got absolutely soaked......hopefully all their gear will be dry by tomorrow.

HIGHLY COMMENDED

Absolutely thrilled to receive a ' Highly Commended' award at the recent Lancashire & Blackpool Tourist Board Annual Awards. Micheala Strachan was lovely, a wonderful personality and great fun.

The blackbird nesting in the clematis hatched 4 eggs but there only seems to be two birds in there now. They are almost ready to leave the nest now so I hope they survive ok.

Our visitors arriving in the Dairy today found a tiny, tiny baby sparrow alone on the cobbles. Can't find the nest it is from so Zoe has taken it home to try and feed it and help it to survive. Its such a tiny little thing, I just hope it makes it.

CONGRATULATIONS

Many congratulations to Philip & Hannah who stayed with us over Easter while competing in the Ballroom Dancing Festival in Southport. They did extremely well and are now ranked 4th in the UK sequence dancing. Well Done.
Plenty of activity in the various nests around the place. Our blackbird is back again this year, nesting in the clematis around our back door. She fledged 3 babies successfully last year so lets hope she does the same this year. We have also been watching a pair of robins who have built their nest in an upturned flowerpot in the rockery. Mum and Dad were very protective and 'dive bombed' Milly if she went anywhere near!
The hens are away on holiday at the moment. We took them to stay with Zoe while we went to France for a week and haven't been back for them yet. Alan is making a new compound for them in the field so we will bring them back just as soon as it is finished.