fly’s surprise

We have lots of arrivals on Borough farm, mainly expected, some unexpected, like the lamb that was born on Morte Point this week (in the middle of July!) but when  I opened the kennels one morning a few weeks ago I had a surprise to beat most…..

Fly failed to materialise so I poked my head inside the door to be greeted by the unexpected whimper of a single tiny black and white pup (the result of a brief dalliance with Jake when he’d been returned to the wrong kennel for ten minutes). I admit that I did groan a bit, as Fly having a puppy in the middle of the summer wasn’t really part of my plans. Fly wagged her tail and seemed unsure as to whether she was to be a working or stay-at-home mother. Jake wagged his tail, tried to look innocent  and gave me that “wasn’t me” look that he usually saved for a when he’d been told off for barking.

My wife and children quickly arrived at the scene and whisked puppy ‘Alfie’ and his mother off to the post-natal ward in the kitchen. Leaving me to contemplate how long it would be before my youngest member of the team would return to work.

I needn’t have worried, by lunchtime Fly had decided that Alfie was in good human hands and wouldn’t miss her if she popped out to work for an hour…. such is the life of a working mother!!

Alfie

sheepdog displays

It’s the middle of July and we are already well into our season of Sheepdog and Falconry displays at Borough farm. Although the weather has been much better than it has the last few summers  (in fact I’ve been hoping for a little rain to make the grass grow) for the last couple of weeks, Wednesday seems to have been the only wet evening of the week!

However, it’s given us a chance to try out the new barn as an undercover seating area, and I’m pleased to say that it works really well.

But we’ve had enough rain now to freshen the grass and even to put a little water back into some of the ponds again, so I’ll be quite happy to see a return of the sun. As an old farmer said to me recently when I commented that we could do with some rain ‘be careful what you wish for, it might not know when to stop!’

the first display in the new barn