We awoke to another crispy morning - the snowdrops are still creating a wonderful carpet of white in the woods and still are a sign of spring to come. The lambs who have shared the woods for the winter have enjoyed nibbling the ivy from the trees and the barks are now quite bare. Manly the ram is due to be removed from his duties and the flock can then be reunited. I noticed this morning that several ewes need to have their feet trimmed - another task for the forthcoming weekend. This weekend the dawn chorus has lightened the mornings.

Today was a big day for our small flock of devon and cornwall longwool sheep - I had booked a pregnancy scanner to visit the farm this morning. THe ewes were run into a stable last night so their fleeces would be dry - better for the handlers ...... and their stomachs empty - better for the scanner to pick up images of the lambs It was a mixed result - basically Manly the Ram had done a good job of serving the older ewes and they were all in lamb - mostly with twins with the exception of ' bad hair day ' who is having a single.

I'm writing this on a crisp frosty sunny morning, the snowdrops are now in full bloom in the woodlands and there are some on my desk in a tiny vase which is putting a smile on my face. On my right hand side is Aussie the cat who as is often the case - has joined me in my work. At last, on Friday I took a walk up to cox tor on Dartmoor with the dogs - it was a beautiful morning on the high moor yet the town of Tavistock sat in a thick mist which made a great back drop to the photographs I took.

Wow ! so much has happened and now we have emerged into a new year - with snow drops pushing through the undergrowth in the woodlands. and tulips and hyacinths coming up in the garden - there is much sign that spring is around the corner.

yesterday was such a wet and blustery day - and I was waiting for the scaffolding to arrive as the solar panels are arriving tomorrow - ready to be fitted onto the barn roof later in the week. Working outside between the torential rain showers, and then dashing into the office to tackle the accounts.

whoopeee ! the yurt canvases are now all clean, dry and folded away in the snug barns for the winter months. Good news for next season is that we have been selected to appear in coolcamping kids which is due to be published in May 2012 - we already have some bookings for the season and plan to open in late march - which I am sure will soon be with us. Manly the ram has settled in nicely with his ewes and the lambs will be due to be born around that time too.

Yesterday we had a new arrival on the farm...... manly the devon and cornwall longwall ram ! he has a very gentle nature and gives us none of the butts up the rear end that our previous ram did - Denzil. Today we have split our small flock into two and put Manly in with big mama our eldest ewe, bad hair day - not sure she will pass the criteria for a true to life devon longwool ewe - we are having them checked in a few weeks time by Mr Tucker who we bought Manly from yesterday - and the four two tooth ewe lambs who were sired by denzil two seasons ago.

Today the last of our summer guests left the farm. With it the last spell of fine weather has also broken and we are fairly smug that we have managed to harvest most of what we have grown. Tomorrow we host a charity coffee morning and soup lunch so much of the remaining garden produce will be sold then. It has been a most amazing season with wonderful people visiting the yurt site and spending their holidays here. We have proudly shown them our favourite sites and eating houses and hopefully given them a taste of something special during their time in the countryside.

I was sitting in the garden with a much welcomed cup of tea this beautifully warm october afternoon when I noticed a rustling noise under the old rhodedendron bush. Investigating further to my delight I found not one but four small hedgehogs, each the size of a scotch egg, sniffing and rooting around amongst the fallen crispy leaves. I have never even seen one young hedgehog let alone four so it was just such a perfect surprise. Not far away we found the mother hedgehog who was keeping a careful eye on her offspring.

My friend Kate who lives on a farm near cotehele in the Tamar valley had hired an apple press for the day and several of us turned up at her farm this beautifully hot sunny day with bags and boxes filled with apples of all sizes and descriptions to press into juice. It was my first try at pressing apples and I wasn't too sure of the outcome as our apples are quite bitter to taste raw and are of the old cider variety. Each of us girlies took turns with our batches of apples, firstly placing them through the pulping machine which was like a giant liquidiser, then into the press.