Lots of Violets but Little Frog Spawn

'They are a fine pleasing plant of Venus, of a mild nature, no way harmful.' This is how Violets are described in my Culpeper's Herbal Book and I think the description fits them well. This year they seem to be springing up everywhere around here and it is really making me feel that Spring has sprung. Unfortunately, though, we don't seem to have the other sign of Spring..frog spawn. We've only had about 3 dollops of it and very few frogs but in other years the ponds would have been heaving by now. I'm guessing the frogs just didn't survive the freezing cold weather of early winter :(

Last week I said goodbye to the sheep we have been stock checking as they have gone back to the farm where there is a bit more grass for them to eat. The picture below shows me having a last little word with my favourite who I call Alice. She really is a very friendly sweet natured Jacob sheep and I will miss visiting her each week. I keep thinking about renting some of the field behind us and buying her and perhaps a couple of others, like the two other Jacobs looking on but it probably isn't practical.

I will still get to see her when I am at the farm which is most of the time just lately as lambing started last week on the 16th. The lambs are coming fast with half the ewes having delivered already. It is an incredibly busy time with far more involved than just the birth so I am really tired but enjoying every minute of it:))))) I will go into that more in my next post. In the meantime couple of 'ahhhh' pictures to be going on with. The one below is of the first lamb delivery that I was involved with. The mum was very tired as it was a long labour but she summoned up enough energy to clean and feed her baby before it got too cold.

This next one was born the day before and so it was marked up and moved into the nursery pen with some more of the older lambs. It was soon running around with the other lambs. The mums all tried to rest whilst keeping an anxious eye on their babies but difficult when the lambs seemed to enjoy jumping on and off of their backs :) Today they were all let out into the field for the first time where they could enjoy the lovely warm sunshine and race around even more.