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A visit to Wimpole Hall for the lambing - Mon 19th March 2007.

Lambing. Beautiful little lambs jumping about with their mothers in the Spring sunshine with blue sky and green grass. Well not quite. The lambs certainly were lovely but the weather was showing her other face. The wind was bitterly cold and the snow and hail showers were frequent. However for James and William’s first outing of the year it was still fun.

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Ashdon is a village in the very north of Essex. In fact the borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk are only just down the road.

It is a relatively small community of some 400 homes but there is plenty going on here as will be seen from the links below:

We have an excellent plant nursery at Beeches.
We also have an excellent children’s nursery at Ashdon House of Children!
There are holiday homes avalable for rent at Hill Farm and Whitensmere.
There is the village windmill which has just got its sails back on and is undergoing a full restoration.
Visit the Cricket Club and get a wallpaper for your desktop of your favourite player!
We used to have a train station before Mr Beeching came along.

And if you are a member of the Flack or Swan family then you might want to look here.
To feed the spirit try the Bhuddists at Marpa House, the Parish Church or the Chapel.

(A view of Ashdon church from around 1900.)

And we even have our own Wikipedia entry!

Winter always feels endless at this time of year but there are signs of Spring approaching. The snowdrops on the river walk are flowering very well this year and finally seem to be spreading a little. The loss of the huge horse chestnut tree down by the road has actually helped give them more light and they are thriving on it. The daffodils that James and I planted last autumn are coming through too and hopefully will produce a lovely yellow show in a few weeks time.

The donkeys are looking forward to Spring too. I have struggled to keep weight on Pru again this winter. She has been rugged up since October and has had plenty of additional sugar beet and carrots as well as her usual chaff mixes and various supplements - a real witches brew. However she seems happy enough and they have just moved down onto the lower paddock so she is getting a little more grass now which always keeps her happy.

I have even had Margo in the driving harness in the last couple of weeks! Only long-reining around the paddock but its a start. And I put a saddle on her so James could have a ride last weekend.

The vegetable garden is all dug over and awaiting warmer weather so I can get planting some seeds. James will have his own little section this year and I’ve got some sunflower and mixed garden seeds for him to grow.

The chickens are finally starting to lay some eggs and the tractor is running again complete with new spring.

So roll on the real Spring time!