Friday 30 September 2011

Late flush of grass and happy birthday!

As I write, the sun is streaming in and warming our office. The only clue that it is not high summer is the crimson leaves against the blue sky and the apples which have already fallen and providing tasty morsels for the song birds. The dew on the grass too is always a sign of autumn but this glorious sunshine is wonderful. All of the sheep are enjoying it too, the ewes who will lamb in January are busy putting energy into the lambs growing inside them and the ewes who will lamb in March are being 'flushed' before we put the rams in with them in a couple of weeks. Flushing simply means putting them on our best grass so they are in tip top condition for meeting with their husbands and shedding enough eggs to maximise the chances of them getting pregnant.

It is a great time of year, as it is the beginning of the sheep cycle once again and it already makes us think of getting the lambing sheds ready for the ewes to come in and making them cosy on the straw and watching their tummies grow and waiting expectantly for that new life to appear.

Next week, we will have been here in Little Wittenham for two years. An amazing journey it has been, full of highs and lows but we are loving it and can't wait for this coming year to find out what it has in store for us! One significant change will be seeing Molly toddling around the lambing sheds. She was so small this year but she will be fully alert and interactive this time!

We are already taking bookings for people signing up to be 'shepherds for the day' which we are looking forward to. So please let us know if you are interested, particularly during lambing time as that is when we are most busy.

We are doing 3 new markets in Reading, so please come and visit us or let us know if you would like to order any lamb, we have some delicious cuts now available.

Camilla, Roly, Molly, Boris and Belle