In early March, when the snow was still lying, we noticed stripped fir cones underneath the Scots pine trees in the farmyard.  

11 – 6.45a.m. Standing at the yard tap, filling a bucket, when a fine spray of “bits” floated down from the Scots Pine. Looked up to see a red squirrel enjoying breakfast! Compulsive viewing for five minutes, I went to get my camera and, of course, it had gone by the time I returned.  

17 – Lots of frogs at the pond this morning. Out walking the dogs, saw and heard my first curlew. This lovely bird is the emblem of the Northumberland National Park. Coming down the field I retrieved my hat from the Labrador’s mouth and then wished I hadn’t. A few minutes later I turned around to see him carrying a leveret. It appeared unscathed. The Labrador is a trained gun dog with a “soft” mouth. Cupped in my hands, I put the leveret down in the shelter of an old wall, roughly where it had been picked up. Checked later in the day and it had gone. Hopefully re-united with its mother.

21 – Saw first peewits (lapwings) on the hill. Their aerobatics are a pleasure to watch. Visiting oystercatchers now much in evidence. Their distinctive call is always eagerly awaited as a sign of spring.

22 – Gathered the sheep on the Wether Hill to “shed off” the ewes that are expecting twins. They get extra rations. We know whether they are having one or two lambs because they are pregnancy scanned in February.

23 – Frogspawn at “Tadpole Corner”, so named because the ditch at the corner of a field is a favourite with frogs. The water quickly dries up. Some years we move the frogspawn in buckets to the pond.

24 – Housed the in-bye mule ewes in the shed today ready for lambing. They are closely watched, day and night, and assistance given with any difficult births. The in-bye blackface ewes lamb outside.

Lamb warming on the hearth in the farmhouse kitchen. The routine is the same for any hungry, cold or bedraggled lambs. Each is tube-fed with colostrum, that way you know it is getting the right amount, wrapped up in a towel, and turned round from time to time to allow all over warming. It is quite amazing to watch an almost lifeless lamb warm up and return to the land of the living.

25 – Numerous owl pellets in the lambing hut at Ingram Hill cottage. A barn owl was seen there at Christmas time.

26 – Gathered the Ewe Hill sheep to “shed off” the twins. A photographer came to take photographs of “life at lambing time” for the National Park.

28- Members of the Northumberland Archaeological Group field-walked the Rashery Field. Among the “finds” were several flints, three horseshoes and a fragment of a Romano British bead. The Northumberland Fell Runners Association held its annual race across the two hills on the farm.