Wiltshire Village Meats Farm Diary - April - toads, king-cups, bee-flies

	Wiltshire Village Meats Welfare - - Quality				In association with Walter Rose and son Family Butchers
APR 2008 MAR 2008 FEB 2008 JAN 2008 DEC 2007 NOV 2007 OCT 2007 SEP 2007 AUG 2007 JUL 2007 JUN 2007 MAY 2007 APR 2007	FARM DIARY THE EVERYDAY STORY OF LIFE ON A WILTSHIRE FARM
	Links to other pages HOME FARM SHOP CARDS WALTER ROSE ABOUT OUR FARMING FARM DIARY RECIPES QUESTIONS CONTACT US		April 2007 1st April 2007 - April Fools day We spent today in the garden, out of the strong wind it was lovely. The signs of spring are well advanced now. I see from last April the primroses were just out and the daffodils 'on their way'. This year the primroses have been flowering since February and the daffodils for weeks! We spent some time clearing the weed from our little pond. Sadly still no frogspawn or toadspawn although we find toads in the garden quite often. I found a toad one night this week in our courtyard. The kingcups in the pond are nearly in flower and the irises are putting up new shoots. I know we had snow a fortnight ago but it really does feel like spring. Appropriately for April Fools day we saw a bee-fly in the garden 'Bombylius major' which is a fly which looks like a bumble bee but with spindly legs. It flies differently to a bee, and doesn't buzz. It has a long proboscis and hovers to feed from flowers. I don't think they are particularly unusual but I have never seen one before. We're hoping to get some orphan lambs for the children to rear in a couple of weeks time so we will need to relocate the three bad piglets (expert escapers that had to be housed temporally in top security accommodation!) which are currently occupying one of the stables. The bored border collies will approve of some sheep, although the sheep will be outnumbered poor things! Collies love working more than anything, they don't really mind whether its sheep, geese, cattle or even pigs. As we have only a few cattle which are still housed for winter, and currently no sheep or geese they do find life a bit dull - only the postmen and deliveries to hastle! Easter Easter has been very busy trying to juggle the demands of the farm with School holidays and Bank holidays. The wonderful weather has certainly made the school holidays fly by. On Maunday Thursday we bought two orphan lambs for the children to rear. The start of a sheep flock?! The lambs have been a lot of fun but also quite a lot of work as they require four feeds a day and we had to build them a pen in the orchard so that they don't trash the garden. The children lead them out from the stables to the orchard on leads which is good training for when they are too heavy to carry - which won't be long! The origin of 'Mary had a little lamb' is not hard to see as the lambs follow us everywhere. The have been named Joy and Grace which seem appropriate names for Easter lambs. Jed the border collie has enjoyed himself recently as we decided to try using him to drive pigs at Soley - he is rather good at it!
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