After a nice restful Christmas lambing started with a bang. Two days early. This is not as the newspapers think due to global warming. The rams were introduced to the ewes on the 5th of August instead of the 7th. This was an accident. We must have forgotten what date it was. Our usual start date is new years day. That allows us all to see the new year in without having to see the sheep late at night. This year as the clock struck 12, I was in the sheep house picking up a new born lamb.One o'clock came and I was still there.

As I write we have forty-seven babies. Some need a little feed to keep them going until mothers milk begins to flow properly. And some are leaping and jumping within an hour of birth. They are all different. Some are real little characters and you can get very fond of them. We have oneat the moment and we call it squeaker. He has a cry like a cat. his mother had two lambs but she was rather thin because she had put so much effort into producing two big lambs. We decided toadopt one to another ewe who had a single. While squeaker was not happy to begin with and made such a din, everyone kept picking him up for a cuddle. Now if he sees one of us pass by he squeaks to get a cuddle. I am afraid he might turn out as a tame lamb. I hope he doesn't. Tame lambs are such a bind.
Over a holiday period hundreds of people took advantage of the mild weather and went for walks on the cliff tops. Some had a dog. Some had three or four dogs and we always hoped they would keep them under control. Unfortunately this year someone hsa not been careful enough. First of all someone came to Frogmore and said a sheep had been attacked in the Lantic Field dip. It was stuck in brambles and bleeding. that field belongs to Churchtown Farm and Mark and Charlotte had to search for it and treat it. last week I went to check the ewes in Lantivet Field and noticed one standing on the very edge of the cliff. It was very distressed. It had obviously been chased by a dog and jumped right through the new fence that the National Trust put there last year after a ewe had jumped over the cliff and had to be rescued by the coastguards.