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.

Busy Bees

At last there is some colour in the garden with a good show of crocuses underneath the apple tree and it is not just me that's enjoying them as they are a buzz with lots of bees all with their heads covered in pollen.

It is nice that it has turned a bit warmer (we even had a moment of sunshine!) and it has brought the insects out but unfortunately the warmer weather didn't arrive in time for our visit to Bedford to see a demonstration by Monty Roberts (horse whisperer). It was freeezzzing but it didn't detract from the evening and Monty was amazing as ever. It was quite nerve wracking to watch a 76 year old man walking behind a horse that was kicking out at lightening speed. Needless to say the horse was quickly brought under Monty's spell. I wish I had his skill...and his courage:)

The rest of the weekend was spent visiting my eldest son and his girlfriend who also live in Bedfordshire. We stayed at a hotel next to an area of lakes full of wildfowl. Unfortunately I had forgotten the binoculars but it was still lovely to walk round the lakes and even nicer to wake in the morning to the sound of geese honking.

We returned home on Monday, calling in at the RSPB reserve in Sandy where we checked out their binoculars in the shop. It made me realise that we need to get some new ones.

On Tuesday we were back to helping with the Old Surrey Downs Project but this time it was moving some cows which was a new experience for me. Cows and I don't usually get on too well...they chase me...but these seemed ok. I just wish I could understand what they are thinking when they stare at me. It is easy to read a horse's body language but cows seem to give nothing away which I find rather un-nerving. They will be conservation grazing a lovely area of chalk grassland in Chipstead, Surrey.

This is just a short post as I want to get back to the http://www.meadopenfarm.co.uk where they have 24hour lamb cams watching the lambing pens. It is addictive viewing. Yesterday we saw two sets of twins born. It is also very useful to see what happens as we will be involved with the project's own lambing this year. The barn is now all ready to go with the floor, walls and hurdles all cleaned and disinfected. Lambing is due to start on 16th March. The picture below shows Jack, the sheep dog, jumping the gate...I'm sure he has springs in his legs:))

Averting an Accident

After spending a lovely relaxing weekend in the New Forest we were soon back to hard work. In the area of SSSI that the ponies are grazing at the moment, there is a deep bomb crater. It is surrounded by brambles, so hasn't been easily accessible, but the earlier snow flattened the brambles so we thought we should climb down to have a better look at what was in it. We were horrified to find that, what we thought were more brambles, was actually masses of rusty barbed wire and other junk. The grazing officer decided there was too much junk and it would be too dangerous to remove it, so Tuesday was spent taking out trees and scrub from around the outside of the crater so that a fence could be put up to stop the ponies from getting in there. We then spent the afternoon moving logs...on Wednesday I could hardly move I ached so much! It was a good job done though as I dread to think what would have happened if the ponies had gone into the crater and got caught in all that barbed wire.

It is nice to see the stirrings of new life in the pony field. Cuckoo Pint is springing up in the old copse area. It looks lovely and juicy but the ponies never eat it so I'm guessing it doesn't taste as good as it looks, although, Culpeper says it will, 'cleanse all manner of rotten and filthy ulcers' and 'heal the stinking sores in the nose' and that, 'mixed with hot ox-dung and applied, will ease the pain of gout.' Hmmm...my old mum thinks she has a touch of gout but doesn't want to bother the doctor with it:)))))

Dog's Mercury is also beginning to come up and is another plant that the ponies will not touch probably because it is poisonous, although, again according to my Culpeper's Complete Herbal, if the leaves are rubbed on warts they will go and Hippocrates reckons that when applied to a female's 'secret parts' it will cure all sorts of women's problems...I'm shocked at the language :D

Sadly the garden remains devoid of snowdrops which no doubt the pheasants have something to do with. The pheasant below is the most friendly and follows me around the garden.

The area under the tree at one time had lots of spring flowers growing under it but this year it is just a patch of mud and the culprits are easy to spot. Luckily they don't touch the daffodils and they are coming up all over the place so we should have some colour soon.

We are off to Bedfordshire next weekend to visit my eldest son and his partner and to see a demonstration by Monty Roberts, the horse whisperer. We went to one of his shows last year and it was amazing so I am really looking forward to it.

Happy Days

The saying, 'time flies when you're having fun,' nicely sums up the weeks since my last post. We haven't been doing anything special but what we have been doing has been very enjoyable; we've been planning our new bathroom which has involved plenty of discussion over lovely pub lunches; we've been doing lots of sheepy and pony things and been for some good winter walks:)

Our first pony activity of the New Year was to get a worm egg count done. The picture below is of my husband who, although he looks like he is impersonating a gnome, is actually sitting in the pony field, early on a very cold morning, waiting for Tavey to do some droppings (I was watching Rufus). We had a deadline as the faecal sample needed to be at the vets by 10am but as it was a half an hours drive away, it didn't leave us much time from first light. We had nearly given up and had just started pouring out coffee from our flask, when first one went, then the other. The coffee went flying as we gathered the precious nuggets and rushed off to the vets. We burst into the vet's office at 1oam on the dot...phew.

A week later Peter, the grazing officer for the Old Surrey Downs Project, called round with some worming medicine and a bag of pony nuts. We had to mix the wormer with a few nuts and feed it to them over five days. Now, as usually we mustn't feed the ponies, not even a carrot, this was a real treat for us and them, although we weren't sure if they would like the medicine. We needn't have worried as it was apple and cinnamon flavoured and they loved it, licking every last bit of it from their buckets. The trouble is that although the worming is now finished, they are still expecting us to arrive with food and can't believe that we haven't got anything for them, so they follow us around as we are checking the perimeter fences, watching our every move even though there are plenty of juicy plants for them to eat in their field.

The new sheep that we check seem a happy, healthy bunch and are no trouble except for a Jacob that I've nicknamed 'Domino' (because of its markings). We had arrived to find Domino missing from the flock and we eventually found him looking rather dead in a patch of brambles. On investigation we found that he was still alive but had got a thick stem of bramble caught round his neck and as he had twisted round and round trying to escape he had tightened the stem until it was more or less throttling him and he could hardly breathe. It was so tight that it was difficult to release him and when we did his legs were so weak and shaky that he kept falling over but luckily he soon recovered once he got back with the flock and started grazing within a few minutes although I imagine he must have had a sore throat.

We have also recently helped gather the pregnant ewes so they could be transported back to the farm where they were scanned to see what they were expecting. Out of the 32 ewes all are expecting, 19 with twins (and a couple possibly expecting triplets) and all the rest with singles. This will be the first year we are involved with the lambing so I am quite excited.

With so much stock checking I haven't had time to do anything in the garden other than to have a walk round to see what is coming up. It all seems quite behind this year..the snow drop flowers are almost non existent (I'm beginning to wonder if the pheasants are pecking at them) and the daffodils have only just shown themselves above the ground, unlike the Rhubarb which started sprouting underneath the snow in December..pity I don't like Rhubarb.

The other little star of the garden, that has been flowering from before the first snow and is still going strong, is this little primula (or is it a polyanthus..never quite sure of the difference). I think I will have to propagate it as I have never had one that is so strong and perpetually flowering.

2010 was a brilliant year for me but I think 2011 may be even better. Winston Churchill once said, "I am an optimist. It doesn't seem too much use being anything else." This about sums up how I feel, so (although a bit late)...Happy New Year everyone:))))

Christmas Dinner

Christmas can be an expensive time and this year it has been particularly so. We haven't spent a lot on presents and I even managed to keep the catering down to fairly sensible proportions but I have spent loads on bird food. It has been so very cold and snowy for such a long time. How could I look out my warm and cosy living room window, while tucking into my second box of chocolates, and watch birds like this poor crow wading through the snow late in the day. Of course I have had to put out copious amounts of food for the garden wildlife.

On some days it has been like Piccadilly Circus with birds coming and going from the feeders. They have all got on very well with each other except for the pigeons. They haven't been aggressive with the other birds, just amongst themselves and I have seen some awful bullying going on. One pigeon repeatedly stood on another one pecking savagely at it. Then it would fly away only to return a few moments later to lay into the same bird again. I didn't know pigeons could be so nasty but I guess in extreme weather it's everyone for themselves.

Friendly Robin has been bobbing around outside the patio doors each morning, waiting for his breakfast. He seems to be surviving his second winter very well and looks fat, healthy and happy (not surprising with the gourmet food he's been dining on:)

A good number of pheasants have now made themselves at home in the garden thus avoiding the Boxing day shoot:)))) They are so intelligent as birds go and quick to become tame. If they see a movement from within the house they run over to the window making little chirping noises. Needless to say I have a big tub of grain at the ready to throw out the window for them. One of them has also found the small bird's bird table and regularly wedges herself in it to finish off anything that friendly robin has left behind. How can anyone enjoy shooting these lovely birds or any other living thing come to that.

As well as being expensive with food it has also been a busy Christmas as, with snow on the ground, the ponies have needed hay every day as well as having the ice removed from their trough and their water topped up. The hay and water have to be carried over to them so it is heavy work and time consuming but very rewarding when we are greeted with a whinny of welcome from a hungry pony and a lovely way to start Christmas morning:))))))

We also have some additional sheep to check. They are on a site in a beautiful nearby valley. It is quite a walk to get to them but their hay and water is in the wonky barn so we haven't needed to carry it to them. The site they are on goes steeply up the side of the valley and was very slippery in the snow but thankfully most of the snow thawed last night so today's visit was easier. I am looking forward to seeing what wild flowers and butterflies there are at this site in the summer. It also looks like there are some good place for reptiles too.

Finally, I was looking in 'Culpepper's Complete Herbal' (a Christmas present to myself) and found that back in 1653, when his book was first published, Dr Culpepper suggests Holly berries to, 'purge the body of gross and clammy phlegm'....yuk...I wouldn't recommend it though, if you are one of the many suffering with a bad cough this Christmas, as I think Holly berries may be poisonous. On the other hand if you are suffering with a bad case of, 'worms that breed in the ear' you should be ok with a dose of Sage...lol. I love this book but I am so pleased I didn't live in the 1600's:)))))

Happy New Year to everyone.

Oh No, Snow!

In my last post I mentioned that I hoped we wouldn't get as much snow as last year as it made checking the ponies such hard work...here we are, one month later, with even more snow than last year! It has been snowing for the last three days depositing around one and a half feet of the white stuff. The ponies don't seem to mind though. They have icicles hanging off their coats, manes and tails and the snow comes above their knees but despite a supply of good fresh hay they prefer to dip their noses into the snow...

...and eat the grass underneath.

They don't seem to have any trouble wading through the deep snow to get around...

...however, I do and after three days of doing the mile walk to and from their field up to my knees in snow, my legs ache and I feel exhausted.

The scenery has been incredible though and I have taken so many photos but sadly I can't show them all. The one below is of the snowy valley as we walked back home yesterday. It was totally silent and very beautiful.

This next photo was taken of our little house (bottom right) when we were nearly home. We had popped into the local store and bought chocolate bars to have with steaming cups of coffee when we got in...mmm...it was lovely and as I am sure I must have burned thousands of calories on the hike to and from the ponies, I didn't feel guilty at all :)))

Rufus and Tavey Return

I recently joined an organised walk looking at the stories attached to various plants. The walk took us into the SSSI that had been grazed by the ponies when we their stock checkers. The very knowledgeable lady taking the walk was amazed at the difference the ponies had made and was really excited to find that there were now lots of chalk grassland indicators that were clearly visible. It shows that conservation grazing works and is worthwhile.

During the summer the ponies have been grazing a completely different area that was too far away for us to be their checkers and although we visited them occasionally we still really missed them. However, last week they returned to the original area of SSSI near to us and we are again back to checking them:))) Tavey hasn't changed much but Rufus, the younger one (the grey) has grown such a lot and has lost his baby stature. He also seems a lot more confident and relaxed. It is such a pleasure to check on them and it is also very good exercise for us as the field is on a hill. I hope that we don't have quite such a snowy winter as last year though, as that made it very hard work.
We still also check on a flock of 20 sheep that are conservation grazing on the top of the North Downs. It has been quite a struggle over the last few weeks as they have been in a field covered in brambles and surrounded by Hawthorns. As the picture below shows, they liked to rest under the Hawthorns, but, as we need to check that they were all there and all well, we have had to scramble through the hawthorn bushes to chase them out to see them properly, so, along with brambles catching us round our legs, we have been returning covered in scratches. I'm pleased to say they have now just been moved to a much nicer field, so we managed to do today's check a lot quicker and without a scratch on us.

Below is a picture of my favourite sheep. We call him Rambo as he is a big, strong, handsome Jacob breeding ram but his real name is Ramekins which to me sounds sissy and doesn't do him justice. Although he is so powerful he is very friendly and gentle and loves me to give him a good scratch round the base of his horns. He has just gone on loan to the City of London to do what he does best with some of their conservation grazing ewes so I won't see him for a while but I'm sure he will have a good time:)

There are a few other Jacobs in the flock we check but the rest are all Beulah Speckled Face
sheep.

An interesting fact about sheep is that they only have teeth on the bottom at the front of their mouths and then only eight. They are quite picky eaters and tear the grass by trapping it between the bottom teeth and the hard plate on the top of there mouth. They do have teeth top and bottom at the back of their mouths for chewing the cud but those eight teeth at the front are very important as without them they can't eat.