RGSP's virtual half-hour out.

[rgsp]

Half the world has been visiting us to see the lambs, so you've got to have the treatment too Bob! Tractors may be more to your taste, but everyone likes lambs don't they?








This last one shows a very sleepy and contented lamb in lambs clothing so to speak. She was the smallest of triplets, and while her mum was very good and was feeding her, we had a first-time lamber whose lamb did not get out alive, so it was skinned and put on this little thing. Lamb skins don't half stink after a day or two, but the foster mum still recognises the scent of "her" dead lamb, and accepts it. This one has been wearing the skin for almost two weeks now, and it's getting fairly wholesome again, but also getting a bit small.

[mcfarmer]

Lambs look like they are doing well. I've fooled a few of our cows with that trick, works amazingly well.

[stockslave]

Ahhhh their gorgeous Doesn't it make you feel that spring has arrived when you look at them.......new beginnings

[Deleted]

Beautiful lambs, RGSP and the wee one looks so full and contented

[ploughman24]

sorrry only saw them today but very nice i could do with a bit of snow tokeep cool thankyou

[rgsp]

Had a walk around Arger Fen (near Sudbury) yesterday.
www.suffolkwildlifetrust.org/reserves-and-visitor-centres/arger-fen-spouses-vale/

I'm not 100% sure about some of the captions, so please let me know if anyone thinks they're wrong.

I think this is one of the bugles, but...


Ramsons, or wild garlic if you prefer. Only the very earliest blooms out.


Not a fantastic year for cherry blossom, but there is some


Not sure at all what this is, but it's about 8mm across


I rather like this stump


Fungal spalting on the surface of a fallen trunk


Tiny lichens on another fallen branch


Dog violets


It's easy to ignore dead nettles; calling them Lamiums doesn't help much.


I think this tiny flower is early chickweed.


This large and battered old cherry is in full flower, but like most cherries this year, only sparsely.


Celandines are numerous all over the place.


It's rather early for campion, but there were a couple out.


Broom isn't quite so year-round as gorse in it's flowering, but there was a bit out yesterday.


These little hemet-like fungal growths on an elder tree were new to me.


Bluebells (real English ones) out, with some unusually large wood anenomes which grow there, along with a solitary celandine, and some Dog's Mercury leaves.


Regenerating ash woodland. The seedling ashes here are only inches apart over several acres, and it's going to be interesting (if slow) to see how they sort themselves out.


Blackthorns in flower - patchily as they often are.


I hesitate to post this, because I well know that what looks like a minor sea of bluebells to the eye doesn't show up well on camera. They were rather fine though.

[Deleted]

or YELLOW DEAD NETTLE (Lamium gaieobdolon)
Common names: Yellow Archangel, Dummy Nettle, Weazel Snout.

Brings to mind some field trips with our ecology tutor, many years ago!!

www.flickr.com/photos/merlyn63/4579312166/

[genuinerisk]

Gorgeous shots there, rgsp - the fungus one is fascinating !

[stockslave]

Great pics Rgsp That tree stump is fascinating

[Deleted]

Lovely to pop back in and see the rest of the photos, RGSP
Cherries here are wonderful this year.

[ploughman24]

had to use brain to work out some cup of tea and answers thakyou

[rgsp]

It really is spring now.

Long tailed tit nest


...and one of its owners nearby.



Tea. (Or at least part of it.)



My neighbour's wheat is a much bluer green than my grass.


If you look carefully on this, you'll see there is still open water in the tramline further down the field.


Whereas there is no open water on our fields, but there is a distinct tide line of sticks etc. in one of them,...


and there are still the remains of a small lake in front of the old piggeries, now used as firewood stores.


Talking of lakes, or ponds at least, the marsh marigolds are doing well in our "new pond", as are the cowslips on its bank.


One or two of the cherries already have quite good sized fruit,


and you can just begin to see that some of the mirabelle plums have "set".
.


Male catkins on the walnuts have been visible for some time, and those on the Buccaneer are already OTT, but these on the Broadview next door are still not fully out.


I suspect there is still enough residual pollen around to fertilise the female flowers on the Buccaneer, and if not, pollen from the Broadview above should do the job.


Meanwhile, somebody has been turning the feed trough over...


...and we know who it was,...


...even if some of the family would rather lounge around in the sunshine.


While someone has an excuse for looking a bit smug, having just caught (and eaten) a squirrel.

[Deleted]

Lovely illustrated tale, RGSP