Spring marks the start of the farm's busiest season. There is new life coming into the world everywhere we look.

We are about to hit the peak of lambing 600 sheep, which should bring around 1000 lambs. All of the sheep lamb outside, checked twice a day by our shepherdess and are ideally left to get on with things by themselves. Any sheep or lambs that do need a little extra help are brought back to the farm for some TLC but we have a hardy breed of sheep and the decent weather means we've only had a handful on the indoor labour ward.

We have 90 head of cattle now on the farm, a combination of Belted Galloway and Blue Grey breeds. They are just coming to the end of grazing their winter 'allotment' grounds and will soon be moved to lower, summer pastures. With our farm policy we don't have any calves on Matson Ground, only cattle grazing outside on grass, growing slowly.

The pretty, wild primroses adorn the damp banks and the bluebells carpet the woodland floors. We hear the curlew's calling as they watch over their nests, and thanks to extra monitoring from the South Lakes Curlew Recovery Partnership, chicks will hopefully be fledging later in May.  

We'll be back to update you as we move into the summer months and the farming cycle continues for shearing and haymaking.