Now the snow has gone!

Hi All,

Sorry I haven't been writing recently but the recent snow falls resulted in lots of extra work for us at Barford Farm.

Tiffany, our pony, was stabled for the duration so water buckets, hay nets and feed buckets all needed to be kept topped up throughout the day; the hens' water trough needed to be kept free of ice, even though the hens themselves rarely ventured down the ramp of their ark - far too cold for their little yellow feet; the bird feeders needed to be regularly topped up as more birds than usual visited the gardens, including blackbirds, a whole variety of finches, tits and the more than occasional pigeon. Even the pheasant partook of the seeds which dropped onto the decking below the feeders.

Still, even though we have been worked harder than usual, the snow did bring benefits; hopefully the bug population will have been sufficiently reduced to enable the organic vegetable gardens to flourish this year.

The snow also provided great opportunities for tracking the animals which venture across the fields and through Hook Wood; deer tracks predominated in the woods whilst in the more open fields pheasants were easily tracked - one of which had obviously filled up on far too many fermented berries and wove a most amusing trail of drunkeness across the snow!

Now the snow has gone, just about, we can look forward to the school holidays next week and the anticipation of hearing the whistle of Ivor the Engine, his first visit to the Watercress Line next week! See www.watercressline.co.uk for further details. Incidentally, The Barn provides a very comfortable place to stay whilst visiting the Watercress Line. See www.barfordfarmhouse.com or http://alton-hampshire-cottage-accommodation.co.uk for further details. We'd love to see you!