That's that then

so that was lambing was it? Hmmmmm well I know I said I didnt want any trauma, I didn't want an huge vet bill or any cade lambs but these lot didn't want a shepherdess either!

There all my careully constructed straw filled pens stand - empty. All the buckets scrubbed - unused. Box of plastic gloves - unopened. The heat lamp that had been dusted off and hung in the conservatory just in case has gone back in its box, the coke bottles scavenged from coffee tables around reception have gone in the recycling ( coke bottles are exactly the right size for feeding bottles) So there it is - all done and dusted 16 healthy lambs from 14 happy sheep.

We just keep looking at each other and remembering the times we were up half the night, the year of eight prolapses, cold lambs, rejected lambs, the chapped hands and the snow - shudder.

These sheep are so private and shy they would burst rather than give birth with an audience. The nearest I got was Sunday morning at 10:30 when I noticed a ewe sitting in the hedge a little way from the others - I watched her from behind the hedge. I saw her looking at her own flank and making funny noises as if she was talking to the unborn lamb - I rushed down to the shop and by the time I came back - 10 minutes max - the lamb was born, up, feeding and walking off down the field tight against proud mother's side. The shepherd has gone to the fields and the only way he has known a ewe has lambed is that there is an extra number in the count of lambs.

The two woollies (Devon Longwool) both had lambs for the first time this year - they were under threat - produce or else - so I'm so glad they have done the business at last. They are completely mad - like a couple of naughty girls. I couldn't work out why the one was always covered in grass leaves and mud until I found her one day rolling down the bank in the middle of the field - for fun! She would get to the bottom shake out her long filthy dirty tresses and rush back up and do it all again. The amount of wool these two produce is amazing and now they have two little white woolly daughters.

Lambing being a very hands OFF event this year has meant we could wander away from home for a few hours at a time - Attingham Park with the last of the daffs, the first of the rhodedendrons and bluebells was very picturesque - not as picturesque as the tents full of second hand books - drool. I came home with a carrier bag full -I'm set up for months now. Had to have a quiet giggle - nearly every box had a copy of 'The Da Vinci Code' in it - one box had at least three - I wonder what that says about that book?

So that was lambing - the most uneventful, absolutely boring lambing season ever - but with no vet bill, no bottle feeding and absolutely no stress what so ever who am I to complain?