Spring is well and truly here, although the weather still has
a lot of catching up to do as it clings onto very wintry temperatures, sunshine
mixed with hail storms and biting cold winds, at least I have an excuse this
year for not having planted up the vegetable patch yet.
The labour wards on the farm, also known as fields, are
bursting with new life as the sheep continue to cause the happy farmer more
than a good dollop of stress, as he continues on his lambing rounds from first
light until dusk. The pottery has a new pet lamb, Polo Bear, who entertains the
visitors and happily suckles away from a baby’s bottle. The happy farmer is not
keen on pet lambs, but when Polo Bear’s mother flatly refused to acknowledge
the white bundle of fluff belonged to her, the children over ruled the happy
farmer and insisted a new nursery was set up opposite the pottery, and Polo
Bear was welcomed into the family.
Visitors come and go to the cottages and bed and breakfast suite,
with the happy farmer swapping lambing rounds for his role as tour guide.
Tractor and trailer at the ready, bread boxes as makeshift seats, he took our
lovely French guests out the hill to meet his clan of Highland cows. Now the happy farmer cannot be totally relied
upon to behave himself on such occasions, but when he stopped the tractor, hid
behind a rock and then jumped out shouting moo as he mimicked horns with his
hands, the French guests did thankfully see the funny side. He did however
manage to cause them some concern when his sense of humour led to the tractor
grinding to a halt in the very middle of a deep swollen burn. He proceeded to
inform them they would need to jump off and push. As the guests looked
worriedly from the farmer to the water, a huge grin spread across the farmer’s face,
and the tractor sprung to life once more, this time taking the guests straight
to where those Highland girlies were happily grazing.
Later on Polo Bear was happily guzzling a bottle from our
guests.
Until next time….
