Saturday 26 March 2011

SPRING!

Hey! It's so exciting - spring has returned once again.
 
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The scene outside my back door a couple of days back. Definitely spring like! The snowdrops have given a tremendous show this year and are now dying back, the other spring flowering bulbs are coming to the fore.
 
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Three days this week shep has found herself stripped down to a T shirt, the wellies were even discarded in favour of boots, the leggins also found themselves ditched. Phew! temperatures up to 19 degrees celsius were recorded at my back door (mind the thermometer finds itself in the full sun in the afternoon) I was beginning to wonder whether this was spring or summer we were experiencing.

Life is so much easier, working in the pens without fighting through the clarts or handling wet sheep all day is such a treat. The spring light hitting the surrounding landscape accentuates all the little details and makes the grass appear so much greener - pure bliss! Farmers have been trying to get on with some moorburning whilst the conditions allowed, others have been pre lambing innoculating in pleasant conditions for both man and beast. It has been heaven.

Having said that not everyone seems to share my enthusiasm. Why do many farmers prefer to have their glasses half empty rather than half full??

On enthusing how great the weather has been I have had a variety of replies "Aye, but, March can still throw some muck at us yet",
"she came in like a lamb you know, could well go out like a lion",
"would be grand if it was lambing time, but just see, the weather will turn".
Then there was the factual "Gonna turn cold at the weekend, northerly winds..."

So What? Who cares? Can we not just enjoy this lovely spell of a couple of days spring/summery weather whilst it is here, do we really have to spoil the present with what may be? After all, someday we'll all snuff it (die), do we worry about that? No! we live for today and have the excitement of seeing what tomorrow will bring.

They truly can be a funny breed these farmery folks.

In all fairness to them, the weather is hugely important. Successes and failures can depend on the weather, finances can depend on the weather, the health of stock can depend on the weather. In fact just about everything to do with farming depends on the weather and as I've so often said before there is nothing we can do about the weather other than prepare and battle on. Surely tho' some days we can stand back and thank our lucky stars and appreciate the weather for once rather than always gripe about it. Can't we?

2 comments:

Dr Clive Dalton said...

As daft laddies up the North Tyne and Rede in the 1950s, Shep, the first thing Don Clegg and I had to learn when creating knowledgeable conversation was never to be too positive. If you did, then it seemed that some higher being, somewhere up abun Kielder would come doon and make your pay for your positive enthusiasm.
Even in the hottest days in the hayfield, with a good weather forecast for the week, it was always wise to suggest that it looked as if a shoower could be cumin doon the Tyne!
Yid bettor git some body armour for them Chivits!

Tarset Shepherd said...

Not just the North Tyne Clive, when I first came into the job working in the Rede my boss used to tell me "nivvorr say anything is good, just reply with not say bad" !

Chivits are fine, feisty and doing well, shed lambing is slow, hill will start shortly although had a keb this am.