A wonderful end to February and start to March is fooling us into thinking that spring is here.  The sun has been shining all day every day and there is no sign of rain.  As it is still cold things are not growing yet which saves us from the lawn mowing that is usually needed all year.  The snow drops have been very late but are now beautiful and the daffodils are at least two weeks behind.  All the wild birds are frantically getting ready for the breeding season and darting all over the gardens.  Several very loud jays have now taken up permanent residence in an old holly tree and can often be seen flying round the ponds.  The pair of buzzards which nest in one of our oak trees are still flying over the valley with last year’s baby, which is unusual as it has usually gone by now.

The new hot tub has now got all the lights installed up the steps so that the cottage guests can use it in the dark.  There is a white board in the new laundry room where private sessions can be booked.  Some guests have reported seeing foxes up by the hot tub and after dark you can often hear their unearthly howls.  It is the height of luxury watching wild life whilst soaking in the tub and highly commended.

Our new laundry room for the three cottages is now finished and is so much better than the previous arrangements.  The DVDs from all the houses have been put in here so guests have access to a much bigger selection and this seems to be going well. The freezer for ready meals and our supply of fresh eggs is also in here which makes a good central location.  We are debating turning the rest of the car port into a games room and will be asking visitors what they think. If we did we would try and fit in a ping pong table, pool and table foot ball, though guests might have other suggestions.  This would have to be a project for next year.  We had hoped to get the shower room in the pool hall retiled for the start of the season but as the weather has put so many of our workmen behind this has had to wait.  We are still intending to do this but as we can close the shower room without closing the pool it shouldn’t be too inconvenient for guests.

In the early part of the year we planted two thousand bulbs.  We are hoping these will provide some flowers for the houses which have been produced in a very green way.  Unfortunately the sheep which seem to gravitate to our grounds are finding them all delicious so we may be lucky to get any.

In order to protect our chickens from the ever present danger of the foxes we have moved them with the alpacas into our own garden.  We hope with us being around with our dog that the foxes will be deterred from attacking.  As the alpacas get older they seem to be reacting to the chickens much more and will even herd them if they get worried about them.  As a result of moving all of them, we are now left with an empty enclosure by the ponds.  We have decided to consider getting some pygmy goats and pigs to go in here if we can find a good source of healthy animals and will try and get some in April.