March

March for us arrived like a lamb with light showers after the dry warm February, sometimes it was like summer. Holiday cottages in Dalwood close to Axminster.

The guests leaving after their half term holiday have had a great time enjoying the beautiful weather and we think this is a lovely time to come away on holiday for many reasons.

The Daffodils are all out, Primroses and the Hawthorn in the hedges.

Finding fossils at Lyme regis and Charmouth can be easy this time of year as with the winter weather there is more uncovered. There are guided walks on both of these beaches that you can book up before you arrive.

Our young ewes on the farm are getting heavy in lamb now and are being feed daily with ewe rolls, they have had plenty of grass to eat all through the winter.

The weaned calves in the sheds at Hawley are very vocal when we arrive with the Land Rover thinking they would like some more blend that we feed them twice a day, this is bought from a local mill, it is a corn mixed feed that they like. They also eat ad lib silage, soon they will be out in the fields racing about and will be able to eat the grass.

I have seen some cows out grazing in some fields, as there is much grass after the mild winter.

Fencing is being done by Graham and Winston on the farm ready for the turn out, so the animals will stay in the correct fields and will not make their way to places they should not be! This is always an ongoing spring job.

The farm yard manure that has gathered over the winter from the cattle is being spread over the fields as this is a good natural fertiliser to feed the ground so a good crop of grass will grow in the spring.

We will wait for the Blackthorn to come out in flower before we are sure winter is over….

As expected the blackthorn came out in flower and back came the winter with cold winds, this lasted into the start of April.