Despite a terrible weather forecast, we had a very successful activity day during school half term. Our forays into the field margins were still interesting; the children found lots of different bugs, flies, moths, small crickets and beetles. In the woodpiles and muddy areas, they found 6 different types of snail and many different kinds of slugs, centipedes millipedes and ground beetles.
However, the highlight of our forays was pond dipping. Every scoop of the net contained dragonfly nymphs and various other pond animals – whirligig beetles, snails, back swimmers, pond skaters, and even 2 newt larvae which we quickly returned to the pond. This is quite a new pond and so it was thrilling to see it so full of life.
The piglets were very excited to be fed and stroked by the children and they are now called Rosie and Rupert.
It was a pleasure to have such an enthusiastic group of children on the farm. I thoroughly enjoyed the day.

Thank you to everybody who came to our open day.  It was great to have such a positive reaction to our new venture.  It was interesting to meet everybody and to get some feedback about what facility people would like to use.  Hopefully we can now progress to having some farm helpers… What this space!

The swallows are nesting again in the attic of our meeting rooms.  They are busy repairing their old nest and making a lot of noise.

Our new chicks have arrived!

21 balls of black fluff arrived in a box!  They are getting used to their new home and tweeting away merrily.