and then there were five....

As soon as their sisters (now known as Debbie Harry and Annie Lennox) were out of the door, the boys settled down to breakfast. And this is what they do - all cram their noses into one bowl!

It's not a matter of being polite - leaving the girls' bowl alone (in case they come back?).

We've experimented: how many bowls are needed for how many pigs? The smaller they are the fewer they need. Used to squabbling for teats from Day One they instinctively feel that wherever anyone else is eating is the place to be. When one bowl's getting empty, one of the chaps will rush off to the other bowl and then everyone will follow. Till it's empty. Then they'll all rush back to the other one again to check it's empty, and then back to the other one again -- and so on and so forth until they are absolutely sure every last crumb has gone!

And then they'll check once more!

As they get older, leaders emerge who get to have a bowl to themselves; beware the pig who tries to get his or her snout in! And the others will scrabble and share the remaining bowl or bowls but the same rushing to and fro, checking and double-checking will continue.

Boars and sows do it too: Samson or Mangal will take first bite from the first bowl or pile to go down, the sow will take the second: then Samson or Mangal will dash to the sow's bowl and she has to leave: and then he'll go back and pinch anything that's left from hers (which was his) and so on. Never a hint of a morsel remains.

Except in Samson's case when it comes to cauliflowers (they being the in veg. at the moment): he's not too fond of them but Precious loves them.

Clever girl: she gets to have as many as she wants and he doesn't really care! They get five between them - and mostly she eats most all of them!

Pastures new

Hot on the trotters of their two sisters earlier this month, last Tuesday saw the turn of these two New Romantics to leave RectoryReserve for pastures new...... They were very quiet when we picked them up from amongst their mates in the morning and loaded them into the dog crate in the back of the car. They insisted on standing up to start with so got jogged about a bit as we went over the speed/drainage humps on the drive. But within a few miles they sensibly lay down and spent the rest of the journey quietly chuntering and gruntling to each other whilst keeping one eye on what we were doing up front.
It wasn't long before we reached our destination:

"All our friends are dying to see the pigs so we've got a steady stream coming to visit, starting this afternoon!" said their new Custodian. Which was lucky for us because after settling the girls into their new home - lots of grass (they soon got their snouts in and started rootling) and dandelions and a unique designer ark - we were treated to tea and fresh home-made scones complete with creme fraiche and home made blackberry jelly. Delicious. Can't help thinking that maybe these two piggies have landed on their feet.
"Have you thought of names for them yet?" we asked.
"I thought we'd name them after the characters in Orwells' 1984" replied the son of the house.
"Nice idea. What were their names? I don't recall there being any females on that farm" said I.
"Good point... will have to rethink."
"Since their Litter name is New Romantics perhaps you could think along those lines?" said The Boss.
It'll be interesting to hear what they come up with.
Meanwhile, the girls were quite happily trotting around, sampling the vegetation and tentatively exploring their new 'house'. With such a lot of new experiences in a short space of time and in view of the unseasonal heat of the day it probably wasn't too long before they settled down to a good long sleep.
Which they'd have needed if they were going to be the subject of much attention again later in the day.....
Also - Note the football --- the household includes two border collies, one of whom is crazy about fetching balls and the other is bred for agility..... I could just see the dogs and the children between them teaching these two girls a trick or two.
Which would be handy since, when we go to fetch them they will have to trot up the garden path (and a very nice garden it is too...) and round to the front of the house before loading into the trailer...... Could be interesting.....

Basking.....

This photo was taken at 0550 a.m! Or Tea Time as we know it at Rectory Reserve.... with this view from our bedroom window..... how could a person not wake up and be happy?

We never thought, in the middle of the coldest winter ever, that we'd now be basking in what could turn out to be the warmest and driest spring since records began.

And it's beautiful.

The flowers that were held back by the chill of January benefited from an unusually warm February, accelerated through a calm and sunny March and burst into glorious abundance this month. Daffodils, narcissus, primroses, violets, bluebells, pear and damson blossom and much more - all appeared on show together. Now in the orchard the cherry blossom is out, apple blossom is just starting to show itself; rapeseed in nearby fields is already yellow with flower and the swallows have arrived.

It's as if someone's waved a magic wand and suddenly jolted the world awake after its dark, wintry slumbers.

Delila's not-so-little Clarissa's are thriving on copious quantities of Vitamin D. Daily they amuse us with their antics; meeting and greeting visitors as they come down the drive (causes a little consternation and we do get just a tad weary of hearing "Did you know there are piglets loose on your drive?") and running all over the estate. They spent most of yesterday afternoon trotting around the stable yard, playing with ducks, gawping at chickens (never seen those before) and visiting with Grandma Ginger and Grandad Mangal only returning home to mum when they saw the tea trolley going round...... As a result of which she's kept them firmly 'at home' today allowing them only to go out in the immediate vicinity of the pen! Very firm is our Delila when needs be....

Not getting wet during dog exercise has been a pleasure too. Both Pilot and Gunner are enjoying flushing the wildlife - we are surrounded by an abundance of hare and rabbit; partridge and pheasant are already on the their nests whilst Lapwings "Pee wit" high above us warning against approaching their eggs and the heavens are full of skylarks gliding ever higher, almost deafening us with their glorious song. It makes one feel glad to be alive.

Occasionally we just sit, stare, bask ... before returning to the rest of the day's tasks. Sometimes the Bestest Gundog and I sneak off on our own, drive down to the river on the other side of

town to deliberately get wet - "practising our retrieving from and over water" skills. Thanks to the numerous ducks also splashing around, Gunner has rapidly developed his swimming ability and confidence, able now to go paddle hundreds of yards yet still return on the whistle! He never ceases to amaze: one moment he's madly trying to flush ducks off the water and the next he's happy to turn and retrieve a dummy. Spring is the carefree season for exercising dogs: all too soon the heat, nettles and seeds will make it uncomfortable and dangerous to cavort through the undergrowth. We will not waste these balmy, dry days.

But dry is not altogether good. It was the driest March in England for 50 years with only 0.78 inches of rain and Lincolnshire, with just 0.18 inches, had its driest March ever. The above average hours of sunshine further exacerbated the dryness - a feature which has continued into April. Apart from one damp night we have had no rain at all and we remain basking under high pressure with no foreseeable change in sight. Already the grass has stopped growing. Soon farmers will start to mutter bad tidings.........

But for now, with Easter just around the corner and a Royal Wedding to follow, we're just going to keep on basking----- be it in sunlight or moonlight...... there'll be time enough to worry about the worries.......................

Back Together again

Weaning Precious on 1st April went smoothly: Usual routine - Precious distracted with food as her litter of 'New Romantics' were lifted out one by one - a bit of posturing, grunting and squealing - then one of the piglets 'escaped' and ran the long way round back to Mum - who looked as much as to say "What you? Thought I'd just got rid of the lot of you" before we caught him up and put him back with his mates in the stalls.

Precious then enjoyed a few days of peace and quiet - thankfully catching up on her beauty sleep. A Sow normally comes into season 4 or so days after weaning. On April 5 it was time to return her to her handsome beau. As ever, she didn't hang about when it came to loading her into the trailer for the very short journey (not even time to get a decent photo).

On occasion in the past we have just let her run up the field to him but we were being helped by a couple of 'training to be vet' students and it would have been just like Precious to have her little joke and run all over the place just to show off - so we thought we'd better play it safe! (Someone say chicken?? Not us!).

Samson was delighted to see Precious again and was all over her like a swarm of flies. She, however, having said a brief "Hello" ran off to inspect the recent modifications. "New fences? and a new House?" she must have thought to herself as she gave each a good look over.

Having satisfied herself that all was up to standard she then settled down to tea. Samson, who's been off his food whilst alone ("Getting back into shape" he probably calls it), stood by companiably and just watched, knowing his time would soon come!

Sure enough, a couple of days later, Linda confirmed that they were getting down to the serious business of becoming reacquainted...........

And Danny looked on...

"For this you give me extra carrots and corn?" "What are these guys?" "Why are they in my home pen?" Poor Danny the Donkey. He looked on inquisitively, and slightly confused, as the two New Romantic weaners took over what had been his home for the past few months. OK. He now has a lovely green paddock looking out over the sheep fields and some farm buildings and one of the main entrance roads. But, hang on, does that make up for losing The Winter Quarters???? I think he was prepared to suspend judgement. Certainly the little guys were slightly overwhelmed by their new home: after a quick scoot round they settled to rootling close to Danny - I reckon they'd have been more than happy to share his pen with him..... bet it won't be too long before they've made a good fist of rootling under that gate to get next door. Which we mentioned to Porig, their temporary Mum cum keeper - who said, since they'd been born on her birthday, she'd take special care of them.... and fix any troublesome exit points....... Note the 'troublesome'. Maybe the New Romantics will not find themselves too confined.... Anyway, this weekend is Grand Spring Opening at Elsham Hall Country Park (the New Romantics' summer home) so the Curly Coats are going to have lots of visitors to pet and pamper them. And their departure from Rectory Reserve marks the beginning of our own Migratory Season as our young charges go off to various summer quarters to "Wow" their public...............

Look what the cat brought in.......

Waifa has turned into an excellent mouser - most days either we or the dogs wander round the house (both inside and out) collecting the victims of her exploits.

Last Friday though she really surpassed herself.

In the early afternoon The Big Boss and I were packing and labelling products for market the following day: suddenly the oddest knocking and banging noises started up in the Dining Room. We've had some chaps here for a few days installing solar panels on the roof so my first thought was that one of them was still working away somewhere - although I was certain they'd all finished a couple of hours previously.

It didn't take long to locate the source of the disruption.

As I walked into the Dining Room Waifa erupted from behind the door and flung a baby rabbit down in front of the fire.

"Here's what I brought you for dinner" I think she said .........................

Best not ask "What next"!