We have had some lovely calm, dry weather lately which was optimal for the spreading of fertiliser.

Even though the fertiliser has been purchased and delivered, Michael hasn’t spread it. He reckons he has enough grass at the moment.

He was busy spreading lime over the last weekend and, while Katy tagged along with him, Nelly and I grabbed the opportunity to go for a hack. It was only our fourth time ever to go riding together and we had such fun.

I should have been a responsible adult and kept a close eye on Nelly, but Molly the pony hadn’t been ridden in a fortnight and was quite bouncy.

Hannah's daughter, Nelly with pony Molly.

Luckily, Nelly rides a wonderful, gentle schoolmaster and I could concentrate on staying on board whilst we cantered along and popped the little bushy homemade jumps in the forest. After all of the restrictions of homeschooling and lockdown, it was nice to have some fun.

Ewe lambs out

All the ewe lambs who are in the shed are due to lamb in the next two weeks. As they are Easy-Care’s, they prefer to lamb outside and so they all got chucked out onto nice fresh grass. Yay! No more lugging buckets of nuts to bawling sheep.

Or so I thought (for approximately two minutes), as the empty ewe lambs pens were instantly filled with adult in-lamb ewes. My bucket hauling continues!

Michael tried to encourage my inner farmer.

“I think you like the sheep.”

“I just don’t dislike them,” I respond. “It’s different to liking!”

“Do you have a favourite one?” this was asked in a half-hopeful, half-mocking tone.

“No, I just feed them,” I quip. “I think the sheep shed would look nice with stables in it, though.”

Heavy lockdown

We were cautious in telling the girls about the Government’s proposed “return to school” plan too early, in case plans changed suddenly (the disappointment would be keenly felt).

They both miss their friends so much, but perversely I was also worried that Katy would not want to go as it has been so long since she was at playschool.

So I enlisted Nelly’s help to pretend that she was really sad that she would be on her own all day without Katy and emphasised the fun Katy would be having without her. Then I explained to Katy – as simply as I could – that she got to return to playschool before Nelly because lockdown was being lifted bit by bit.

“Is it very heavy, Mummy?”

Kids are so sweet, their view of the world is perfectly innocent and logical.

“Yes, it’s very heavy, Katy,” I respond. “But when it is all lifted we can all play and have fun.”

The daffodils are out, spring is in the air, lambs will be born soon, fingers crossed we’ll all be having fun shortly.