Spring is springing

Aye, if we awoke from a long sleep we may be forgiven for thinking spring is here. Middle of February and the weather is looking up. It's been dry! and the sun has shone and Shep is convinced she heard the skylark yesterday away out on the hill top. Snowdrops are a mass of white at the moment with the daffodils poking their greeness out of the ground ready for the next month or two.

There is hope, optimism that all is getting better on the farming front, nowt quite like getting the sun on your backs to give a lift to any occasion, mornings are fairly cutting out, light by 6.30 on the frosty ones and holding back 'til closer to 7 on the slower moving mornings. Remaining light until 6pm see's an opportunity to work longer hours and enjoy the weather whilst we've got it.

Pockets of snow are still hanging around some of the hill tops, sitting like mini glaciers where the depth of snow blown in by the winds is refusing to shift in any great hurry, shift it is tho', but now being a solid, frozen mass it is taking longer for the heat to get through it and melt it away.

Scannings are well through, with only a handful left to deal with, results don't seem to have been as bad as many anticipated which is always a bonus, much concern about protein levels in sheep however as dry fodder in the form of silage and hay isn't always up to it's expected quality due to the horrendously poor climatic conditions when it was made.

Hill ewes are going about their business out there on those vast areas, not quite waddling yet unlike the earlier field sheep which are beginning to show signs of being in lamb with their bellies growing. It is less than 6 weeks until the 1st April when many of the in bye flocks of Tarset and surrounding areas will be commencing to lamb, a very important time in the health of the ewe, one which will decree how healthy her lambs will be and how much milk she'll have to feed them with.

It is amazing how quickly memories of wet, wet days dissipitate when enjoying a spell of dry, sunny days. Ground is also drying up, albeit slowly, but drying it is. Long may it last!