My aim when I first started writing my blog was to produce
something each month but somehow April has become May and this month is fast
disappearing so this is a bonus; two in one. I am actually sitting in a cottage
overlooking the Atlantic writing this. I have slipped quietly away for a week
in Ireland on the west coast along the famous Ring of Kerry. There is no Wi-Fi,
no internet; the television has not been turned on. All I have is an amazing
view of the sea crusted with small islands, cliffs, and mountains. For excitement,
there is a pair of starlings nesting in the gutter, stonechats perching on the
fence that rings the garden, skylarks, meadow pipits, and a hare that lops
across the garden when I don’t have my camera to hand. I can reach out and
touch the silence that holds this beautiful place together, take a deep breath
and uncoil.
Because it has been rather hectic.
April came in gently and unfurled slowly; first there were
tight dark green elder buds which opened to the warmth at the beginning of the
month. Hard on these came the tiny, light fresh green leaves around the bore of
the elm that grows by the roadside here and then the sycamore uncurled its
leaves, followed by the showy horse chestnut with its chandeliers of white pink
tinged flowers and finally reticent dark coloured ash leaves broke at the tops
of the trees.
I got used to waking at first light cocooned in the warmth
of bed, turning over in the silence just before dawn and watching the outline
of the window grow pale as the sun crept up above the rim of the world,
fingered its way along the top of hills and spread out along the river and the
fields. Waiting, listening for the sound of the first bird to crack the spell
of night and drifting back to sleep to the song of a blackbird waking the bird
kingdom.
There were special moments: a young deer glimpsed crossing
the road in front of the dog and I as we walked to work; the sound of a
woodpecker drumming high up on the trunk of a sycamore, the first flypast of a blackbird
with nesting material in its beak, and in mid-April, much too early, a lone
house martin arrived and rested alone on the electricity wire slung above the
disused huddle of farm buildings next door to my small holding. A week passed
before two more arrived and then there was nothing and I have had to wait until
I returned from holiday to see the sky above this old nesting site fill with
the flash of wings and wheeling birds. Is an owl pellet on the roof of a duck
shed a special moment? It was for me!
The orchard erupted into blossom. First came the plum, then
greengage and the soft white of crab apple followed by a burst of colour from
the Asian Pear my father had planted. The heady scent of apple trees in bloom
bought out the bees and finally the quince I planted last year caught my breath
with its pale pink flowers.
With the rush of warmth and life came the urge to sow
seeds; tomatoes, cu’s, kohl rabbi, celery, celeriac, pumpkins, squash, melons,
aubergines, peppers, and seed garnered from last year’s flowers in the garden.
Lots of pots and seed trays and tiny miracles as things germinated in the balmy
spell at the beginning of the month and the warmth of the greenhouse.
Finally, at the end of the month I planted out potatoes,
too early maybe but the mice were feasting on the tubers and it was them or me.
The third week in April bought a heavy frost and despite
copious amounts of bubble wrap I lost some of my tomato and cucumber plants.
Nature has a way of gently reminding us that she is in charge and not us (thank
goodness). At least I had earthed up the potatoes and they were untouched.
In the middle of April came the news that many poultry
farmers, big and small, had been waiting for since the end of February; bird
flu restrictions were lifted from the remaining special areas of protection and
I could liberate my chickens and ducks. Maybe it was just my imagination but I
am sure everyone was happier as I opened their old homes on the first morning
and watched them emerge; the ducks on a mission to get to the pond and the hens
scratching for England in the soft soil of their old run.
Then came a few hectic days cleaning up the polytunnel
which had housed the chickens since December. I washed down the polythene, dug
over the hardened earth where the chicken had compacted the soil, and restored
the raised beds. At least I didn’t need to dung it, the job had been done for
me.
The soil in the fruit cage where I had deposited the ducks
had set solid. After weeks of rain, April had turned dry so I waited for more
rain to soften the soil so I could rotovate it, and I waited and waited.
April is lambing.
There is always preparation and earlier this year we had
bought a couple of pig arcs which we planned to use if the weather turned cold
or wet. We reduced the area the flock were grazing with the use of electric
fences so we could look after the new-borns better. I re-read the section on
lambing in my sheep keeper’s bible and wished I hadn’t. Do you know how many
different ways a lamb can get stuck inside an ewe?
Then comes the anticipation. What will one find when one
arrives at work in the morning?
I needn’t have worried about anything because our
experienced mums just got on and did it. No midwife required. I was surplus to
requirements, arriving in time to catch the afterbirth, spray iodine on tiny
navels against infection, and check that all the lambs were feeding properly. Oh,
and straw the arcs because the weather had turned cold.
By the beginning of May, the world was green and lush,
there were lambs in our field, chickens and ducks enjoying the weather, lots of
plants in the polytunnel and I was ready for a break.
The run up to the holiday was panic stations, desperate
attempts to organise everything before I left and there were moments when I
wondered if it was worth going away. Then came that lovely feeling of release
as you arrive and the gradual unwind that a break from routine brings. I made
holiday resolutions to carry back with me. Relax more, take time to enjoy,
stand and stare, the usual things. Have I kept them? Well it has taken me a
week to finish this blog because the days have been so full so ………
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