Going Going Green.......

When we started converting the Barns into Cottages it was at the forefront of our thoughts to incorporate as many green policies as we could. Now a year on it is constantly evolving.

Last year saw the development of the new Vegetable garden which I love. A fantastic place to be and we were lucky enough with our produce to still be eating our onions and potatoes now and the abundance of sweet peas were an added bonus! They filled the cottage vases thought the summer and smelt divine.

This year we have seen the arrival of the Pigs and Cows and we are now planning Chickens to be next! I am surrounded by copies of Smallholder and Country Living Magazines Easter “Hot chick pin up” trying to decide what sort ,how many, what kind of house....... We will keep you posted!

We have expanded the herbaceous cottage garden borders and I wait with baited breath to see what will appear. Already small red Peony shoots are visible through my heavy layers of good organic muck! And the delicate fury buds of the Magnolias stand waiting to steel the show!

We have planted hundreds of trees on the Farm and we hope as they mature hope to welcome even more bird life. For the last eight years we have ben in a Higher Level Stewardship scheme. This is an initiative to encourage and improve the flora and fauna. We have introduced a much less intensive grazing regime, and also a programme of capital works which include the planting of native trees and hedges that include Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Crab Apple, Dog Rose, field Maple, Guelder Rose ,Hazel and Oak. I have spent several hours with my secateurs walking the hedgerows trimming the tops in the hope we will get nice fat hedges. We have also been working on the restoration of our dry stone walls. We also made a wildfowl scrape and this month we have sighted a pair of ducks there! We have started to see if guests can add any new sighting to our list of birds that live here at Southlands and around Gunnerton. There is nothing quite like the arrival of spring and with it the dawn chorus.

This is a great find!

Charles and I have been on a quest for some time now to find a really good pie to put in the Cottage freezers for our guests. It has meant we have had some jolly good lunches! However on the Hadrians Wall tourism day on 4th March we met a great familybuisiness "Pie Mill" who make great pies.We bought and tried traditional lamb and Charles a game pie, fresh ingredients and all hand made locally.They are so good we have now placed a large order and they will be in our freezers next week, waiting for you to try.......

I just wanted to share my enthusiasm for Spring.!!!! Recently we have had storms, gales, snow, power cuts etc. And today it was beautiful! Earlier in the year I found a bargain job lot of Tet-a-Tet daffodils and we planted them around some of the trees in the first field and they are wonderful-tiny golden yellow heads making quite a show after the snowdrops. Only snag is that the pigs have been showing quite an interest in them so I may need to move some for next year (little swines!)

On the subject of the Pigs I have to note that it is totally untrue that Kune Kune pigs do not dig the ground up, they do!!! However as with all animals once you have got them we tend to not dwell on the bad points... so I shall instead tell you how hysterically funny they are and what defiant Characters. Ruby being the bigger bossy one and Poppy is the social one. We have laughed as Charles can now get Poppy to sit! When the Dexters arrived they became jealous pacing up and down the fence line until they got some attention. We had a visitor who said “ so who lives in that little house” and there face was a picture when we called “Ruby, Popps” and within second these two pigs were racing towards us ears flapping squeaking with delight. Digging or no digging they are truly adorable...well as long as they don’t touch the daffodils!!!!

I now need to introduce you to the latest editions to the Farm.......Valentine. Celtic and Mini (because she really is mini!) -Our lovely new Dexter cows. After several fun weeks of searching we found them just near carlisle and they arrived in late February. We also took delivery of a huge round bale of Straw and one of Hay from our very helpful neighbour. To start with we kept them in the stable - there they stood these tiny black yearling heifers knee deep in a thick bed of straw staring straight at me it was a great sight. I have discovered there is nothing nicer than going out after dark to say hello quietly and having a chat with our new friends. They have settled in very well and are slowly getting used to being halter trained!!!
Charles decided to let them out for the first time I was a bit miffed as I had wanted to be there on this momentous occasion!! When I got back there they were happily grazing in the fields it just looked so right to at last have cows on the fields. They are loving the freedom and spring grass....just think maybe calfs in a year or so!!!!