Saturday 1 June 2013

Around the fields.

Saturday and another lovely day.   Maybe it is not quite as warm as it was yesterday, but the sun is out and everything is growing.

Because it is the week-end the farmer tends to be less busy and so after lunch he agreed to walk round the fields with me.   The truth is that I am not altogether steady on my legs on uneven ground and also whichever way I walk I have to encounter a field of young beast - sucklers who are out without their mothers for the first time ever and thus rather feisty.

We started with a tour of the vegetable garden.   You will see in the photograph that everything is netted.   This is to prevent wood pigeon attack - in some years we have lost all our small plants to the wretched things, so now we have learned to cover everything up until it is well-grown.   Peas, broad beans, cos lettuce, runner beans, beetroot, leeks and onions are all through and are thriving.   Gooseberries have set and are starting to fill out and raspberries are coming into flower.   One of the apple trees is heavy with blossom while the other one has only one sprig.

Then we set off down the fields.   Tess loves this sort of walk best as she doesn't have to be on the lead.   The crab apple trees are in full blossom everywhere and look lovely. 

We have one very tiny lamb.   When it came with its mother and





bigger sister it was not expected to survive.   But against all the odds it has done so and although it is very small it appears to be doing well - so fingers crossed.

 In the Plantain the blue and pink bells are out.   There seems to be more each year which is pleasing as they make such a lovely show.

Coming up the pasture I was pleased to be accompanied by the farmer.   We were hassled all the way by these young Belgian Blue cross heifers.   They don't actually get close enough to touch you but probably about eighteen inches away and then they follow you all the way up the field.   Turn round and go 'shoo' and they tear off at great speed, do an enormous circle and return to where they were.

The farmer takes no notice of them but if I had been on my own I would have been uneasy.

Coming back down the  Lane I see the first bit of hawthorn (May) blossom out - on the first of June.   That is just about the normal time up here, so you see everything is catching up in spite of the slow start.

It was our village monthly coffee morning this morning.   As I am still not driving friend W kindly called for me.   As usual it was a lovely occasion to meet villagers and I was glad when one of them told me that she had heard the cuckoo yesterday - as far as I know this is the first time for several years that the cuckoo has been heard in our village.

Sorry about the positioning of the photographs - try as I might they still appear wherever they want to.

18 comments:

Pamela Terry and Edward said...

Looks like the absolute perfect day!
I spent yesterday afternoon in a neighbour's back garden, playing with her new baby goats. Never had so much fun!
xo,
p

Tom Stephenson said...

I too admit to being scared of cattle. I think I mentioned that someone was killed near Bath by the same cows which broke a friend of mine's neck recently, so I feel justified in my cowardice.

shadypinesqltr said...

Lovely photographs. They really capture your "neck of the woods"! Now I need to get off this computer and take a walk around my "neck".

Arija said...

Loved your walk with the farmer Pat. Cows are just curious beast, they just come close to see where the party is. I too am loth to walk on uneven ground and always carry my mobile with me, even in the house, in case I do something silly. Not that it would do much good when there is no-one else at home on the farm and the ambulance would have real fun finding me in an emergency.
Are you growing all those vegetables for the whole village??? Six of us here could not eat all that in a month of sundays.
PS I put in my snow peas and broad beans a few days ago.

angryparsnip said...

What a lovely walk Thank you for taking us along.
I think it is a perfect day.

cheers, parsnip

jill said...

You have had more sunshine than us Pat,it came out for a while but is overcast again after a drizzley morning.xx

Heather said...

May blossom has only come out down here in the past week. Your photos are lovely and I admire and envy you your vegetable garden. Our previous garden was quite large and pigeons were a real pest in the veg plot.
I find uneven ground a problem too - you should have seen me earlier on a narrow stony path when I was tired from gardening. I looked as if I'd been on the bottle!

Joanne Noragon said...

We took a walk through the photos, not to worry about them. Our garden is not yet in; I hope it gets off to as good a start as yours.

crafty cat corner said...

I'm new to your blog but love it.
Funny you should mention the cuckoo, I haven't heard one round here for years. When I lived at home, ( many, many moons ago) we backed on to a large cemetary and always heard the cuckoo making its soft sound, I loved it.

briony
xx

Cloudia said...

You feed our souls with your sharing of yourself and your special place.

Aloha

JoAnn ( Scene Through My Eyes) said...

Such wonderful summery days - makes the winter wait worth it all. The lamb picture is wonderful.

Em Parkinson said...

A lovely tour around the farm Pat - thank you. x

MorningAJ said...

It's looking lovely. I'm glad you were able to get out to see it.

Dave King said...

As always, a lovely post, full of interest - and a bit of nostalgia. Many thanks.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the walk around, Pat. Lots to see in spite of these desperate meteorological times. Normally we'd be seeing seven or eight massive poppies in full flower outside our kitchen window, but only now are the buds beginning to lift cautiously towards the light.

Hildred said...

What a pretty springtime post, Pat. Everything appealed to me, but especially the lambs. Our flock of sheep were special to me when we farmed, and lambing time even more so than shearing time, when I got to squirrel away the best of fleeces to spin.

Dartford Warbler said...

The walk around your farm sounds lovely. A perfect day for it in our very late spring.

I wonder if the small lamb shared a placenta with her sister and "drew the short straw", or if her own placenta was small and/or not working too well? Interesting. I hope she continues to do well.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Thanks for visiting. Arija we grow all our vegetables for the freezer so that we are kept going over the Winter.