Posie's Blog. Tales of island life on a hebridean hill farm

Posie's Blog. Tales of island life on a hebridean hill farm

Monday 29 April 2013

A spring in the happy farmer's step...


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.Photo
Later on Polo Bear was happily guzzling a bottle from our guests.
Until next time….

15 comments:

mrsnesbitt said...

Love the photo of the cow.

Thedarkerside73 said...

Aww cute lambs and cows beautiful pictures!

Looks like spring has sprung where you are!

P x

Rob-bear said...

Spring has, indeed, sprung! Love the animal pictures; so pastoral. I hope you didn't lose lambs to the horrid weather! Or were you free from that stuff?

Blessings and Bear hugs!
Bears Noting
Life in the Urban Forest (my poetry blog)

Elizabethd said...

What a sweet photo of the baby lamb, you would want to give him a hug!

Molly said...

Love reading your news Posie. Hope your French visitors packed their wellies - bet they had a brilliant time. Pola Bear is gorgeous - I bet they all loved feeding him too.

Frances said...

Posie, what an adorable little Polo Bear you have rescued from a reluctant mama ewe. My heart melts at that photo, and I would gladly help keep that little one thriving...as you all have.

That amazing final photo shows me a totally differing scale of beautiful animal around your place.

As always, you are making me yearn for a place so far away from the city views that I know all too well.

xo

Pondside said...

Lovely to see a post from you! Your Farmer has a sense of humour like the Great Dane's - it can be a little concerning to those who don't get the joke!

jane said...

Lovely to read your blog again and to to update on your animal stories - wonderful pics - the french guests will certainly have a tale to tell about their experiences!!

Chris Stovell said...

Ah, that was nice - and such gorgeous photos too. I feel as if I've had a short break.

Fennie said...

I want a Polar Bear! What a cutie! And your Highland Cow is cute as well. Can't you put the lamb to the cow, as it were? Now I have never heard of this being done (and you might need to provide a platform for the lamb to stand on) but if chickens sit on duck eggs and wolves raise Roman twins, then surely two ruminants should get along?

Posie said...

Fennie, that wouldn't work, but you could get a lamb that will go and sleep with the cows. Our cows are all heavily in calf so would not appreciate Polo Bear just now.
Rob Bear, we have lost a lot of lambs because of a bitterly cold wind and very cold conditions, I think the lambing has been poor in lots of places this year.
Thank you all for your lovely uplifting comments, it is good to catch up with you all, Posie x

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