The hot weather continued, and the promised rain never materialised.  The sheep, with their thick fleeces were pleased to see a local shearer who came and did a good job removing their heavy overcoats of wool.
We bagged up some lovely black fleeces, which will be sold to an organic wool specialist. After shearing, the rain finally came, and the sheep have been lying in the lee of the hedges, almost shivering!

Shearing the sheep on the farm

In the veg garden, the rain has encouraged the weeds; perhaps the pesky rabbit will be confused and eat them instead of the onions and cabbages.
Strawberries, blackcurrants, raspberries and gooseberries are almost ready for picking; we need to look out the jam jars!

The bother caused by the rabbit in the veg garden is only exceeded by magpies in the hen houses. They’re in and out of the houses stealing eggs all day, and have so far wised up to various non-lethal efforts to deter them.

An early visit to our meadows with friends of the nearby Treborth Botanic Garden was a success. The marsh orchids were not out, and the meadows were not as colourful as they will be later in the season.
We saw four species of damselflies and broad bodied chasers are around the ponds. Butterflies have not been particularly numerous, but a good number of dingy skippers were flying at the start of the month. Small coppers and common blues have been about, and the month ended with the emergence of the first meadow browns.

Routine farm work has continued, including rolling one uneven field, topping nettles, thistles and intruding blackthorn, and repairing a wall which collapsed into the road.
For the past few weeks, we’ve been working hard to improve access into one of our barns, which is used to store hay bales and provide shelter to our cows during the winter months. 40 tons of slate waste, 3 cubic meters of concrete, aggregate and a mini digger have all been shipped in for the project, which we’re hurrying to finish before hay-making begins!