PIP'S PAGE Christmas Dinners

Dear boys and girls,
what a winter we are having. We have had so much snow all the children who live nearby and some of the adults have had a great time sledging and building snowmen. Most of the schools are open and only the main roads clear so there has been a lot of walking to school with parents. It has been really cheery everyone being much more sociable than usual on the school ‘run' which is now a plough through the snow. The local shop has been a great focal point, I expect some parents wish they served coffee to energise them for either the return journey or the journey on to work. It is a lovely friendly atmosphere in Neary's . They even took delivery of a parcel of new boots for Joy as the delivery man was in a rush and certainly couldn't get along Alden Road.

Christmas was certainly different for us here at Cronkshaw Fold this year. We had our family Christmas with all the relatives well before the 25th as Dorothy was to go to the Czech republic as a volunteer. Freezing conditions however meant that her all her transport was either cancelled or delayed with no guarantee of a warm place to wait and then some one stole her purse with her bank card ,money etc. She was really disappointed but made the best of it. She still had some skiing practise, she and her Dad skied to the Mala for a lovely Christmas curry which was delicious!
Joy went in the landrover.

In November we had a German volunteer staying with us. Dr Kreiglsteiner specialism is in biology but especially fungi which is a real coincidence as we have been planning a demonstration exotic mushroom growing area and our young woodlands. Lothar stayed with us for a month helping a great deal and living as part of the family he even shared our early Christmas meal with the family. In his spare time he compiled a huge data base of fungi, mosses, grasses and trees that area growing on the farm. This will be a great asset.

Ross our shepherd has been checking the sheep all have now been served only three or four have been served in the second three week period so we should have most of our lambs in a short period of time. This is much better for us a small concerted effort from 23rd April. Quite late, but much better for the ewes and lambs as the grass will be growing and no supplementary feed will be necessary. Joy tries to practise a sustainable type of farming keeping to the natural rhythm of our particular land characteristics and weather.

The snow of course shows exactly where and what wild life are around. Against the white snow creatures are not camouflaged so are easily seen during the day. We didn't need to look for footprints in the vegetable garden! Rabbits have eaten all the tops of our leeks ! Rabbit pie!!!