Six minus four equals five.

                                          This is a strange story, but true.
 In February we bought some rabbits, one doe with two kittens, who met an unfortunate end due to mink attack, and two bucks, one of whom turned out to be a doe. This girl who we have called Snowdrop had six kittens, four which died, possible killed by the other rabbit who was in with her and was in fact her brother.
 As soon as we realised that these two rabbits were in fact male and female they were separated, leaving Snowdrop with her two remaining kittens, they have grown well and are now nine weeks old. We also have another doe, Daisy, she has six kittens, now six weeks old. All eight kitten are pure white, just like their mums.

Two plus three new arrivals.

The rabbits get moved twice a day, morning and evening, rabbits  eat quite a lot of grass, our environmentally friendly lawnmowers. Last night when Simon when to move the runs he though that Daisy's kits had escaped and got into Snowdrops run, suddenly there were five kits with her, but one was black! We don't have any black rabbits.

The run is double wired, taking no chances with the mink.

The new arrivals are slightly smaller than the two originals, if they are the same breed as ours they are probably a couple of weeks younger,  fortunately Snowdrop doesn't seem to mind the sudden increase in her families size, and they seem healthy enough, but why do people think they can dump unwanted animals onto other people, why do some people seem to have no conscience of going onto other peoples land?
We never used to lock our house when we went out, in fact the last time we felt we needed to do so we were still living in the UK, over twenty five years ago, but that  changed when we found that on a couple of occasions visitors had called, found us out but still entered our house, once even leaving a   note. To us this is not acceptable behaviour however well you might know people. Since then we have started to lock up. It now seems that we will also have to padlock the gates to stop more unwanted animals being dumped on us, and I'm guessing that we will never know where they came from.
We have now booked our piglets, two Tamworths, or as they should correctly be called, Irish Rooting pigs, we had always thought that this breed originated in the UK but apparently they are an Irish breed. All we need now is the visit from the man from the Dept. and our herd number.

            The garden has a beautiful array of flowing bulbs now,

many of them perfumed, with the Wall Flowers the perfume is quite heady.

                                       I had not realised how many different types of

This little daffodil has a white ring around the trumpet.

                             daffodils and narcissi we have planted over the last three years.

Beautiful colour and shape.

Some of the newest bulbs were Tulips, many have incredible shape as well as colour to them.

such vibrant colours.

I hope that with a good top dressing of blood fish and bone meal they will continue for many years to come.

I love these frilled tulips.

                                             The hedge rows are white with the

                                                    blossom of Blackthorn,

            and banks full of violets, primroses and the humble dandelion.

It is a very colourful spring time. The Swallows arrived last week and at last we have  heard the cuckoo, later than last year, but it seems that summer is on it's way.

  

Blosom Everywhere.

The garden is now full of colour,

                                         each day brings more surprises

So many things giving colour now.

from bulbs planted last Autumn and forgotten about. I wish I had had the foresight to keep a planting plan and the names of what I planted. One bulb in particular has been a real surprise,

Is this a Tulip? I'm not sure.

I'm not even sure if it is a Tulip, it is highly perfumed and very pretty, it has tulip type leafs, but the flower is more like a lily. I hope I will find it in this years bulb catalogues, I will definitely get more. We are also surprised at the number of different types of

                                                                        daffodils

Yet another type of tulip.

                                               and tulips that we have,

I'm sure not all of these came from my last bulb order, but they didn't bloom last year, maybe they just needed time to establish.

The rockery is established now.

The country side is also full of colour, primroses are blooming everywhere, yellow gorse which never seems to be out of bloom, it is said that gorse blooms for eleven months of the year, we have yet to find out which month it misses.

Damson in Bloom.

The fruit trees are also coming into bloom, I hope we don't get a late frost. We have even seen the first butterflies, but have yet to hear the Cuckoo.
We have friends staying with us at the moment, always a good excuse for cooking, like ourselves they are foodies and really enjoy their food. They have travelled extensively and have enjoyed a very extensive cuisine,

Freshly baked strawberry cheese cake.

I enjoy cooking for people like them!
The pig runs are now finished bar the electric tape which will be put round the whole paddock, we know from past experience that pigs are very intelligent, and even if they have everything that they can possible need in their run, they will always explore  a new opportunity to escape. Twenty years on and we still remember chasing pigs around twelve acres. We are too old for such capers now.

Pig run completed, barring the electric tape.

I think we will find that the two paddock system will work well especially as the pig house has a back and front entrance, so there will no need to move it at all.
Work has recommenced on the straw bale barn, our friends are giving it the first coat of lime plaster. With luck it will be totally finished by the end of the month as long as this lovely weather continues.