Meet Geoffrey junior
Many of you would have heard about our wonderful Billy Goat, Geoffrey, others of you would have had the pleasure of meeting him (and even been butted by him). On Saturday 11 March at 11am Caramel gave birth to Geoffrey junior, otherwise known as Amos.
Amos is a beautiful little kid and is exactly like his dad in colour and with his good looks… he was also born on Geoffrey’s 1st birthday. What a great day and how wonderful to have witnessed the very first Pathways birth.
Whilst Caramel was in labour Dandelion was looking on with interest as she was about to give birth to Geoffrey junior number 2, born on Tuesday 14 March at 3.30pm. This was not such a straight forward birth but midwives, Pete and Debbie, did an amazing job and delivered ‘Asher’ safely and healthily.
As I write this update they are both only just over a week old and already they are playing and leaping around in their pen… complete time-wasters. It is disastrous to ‘just pop in to say hello’ as they are captivating and an hour later you wonder where the time has gone. Please click on the image above to see a short video taken minutes after the birth but I will get some more video clips done for the next update as they are absolutely adorable.
Pigs in muck
First day of Spring and the pigs have been released back into their pen outside after over wintering under cover. They were a little reluctant to get into the trailer for the short ride but they wasted no time in exploring the area and seeking out things to munch. Great to see such happy animals… won’t be long now until a couple of them are pregnant!
The start of the bird hide
With the changing season we have started to see many more birds around the pond and hear much more bird-song as we walk around the farm. The picture above shows the construction of the base for our first hide which will soon be positioned on the south side of the pond awaiting the actual hide to be delivered and erected in a few weeks’ time… if it wasn’t for the lure of playing with baby goats I might have spent all my time down there watching the kingfisher, the ducks, swans… Wow – this is going to be such an exciting few months!
Stimulating the senses
The flowers are popping up everywhere. Over the winter and early Spring we (mostly Tim) have planted hundreds of flowers, shrubs, hedges, willow… and it is all now coming alive in a crescendo of colour and texture and new life… and hope. Of course, its not only the plants that grow, even on such hallowed soil as ours we get the odd weed! Hence one of our regular activities is being expertly demonstrated above.
As you enter the farm and come through the gates you can’t help but be struck by the amazing willow cave and the overall beauty of this garden which will stimulate every sense going and be a delight to so many people.
and finally…
Planting, sowing, weeding, building, tending to wonderful animals, mixing with fantastic people, seeing lives changed… what a joy it is to be part of the Pathways community. We are so privileged to be involved and so grateful to all of you for helping to make it possible.
We are now having work parties on the first Saturday of the month in order to make it easy to remember. The next one is therefore on Saturday 1 April I’d like to say ‘You’d be a fool to miss it’ but that would be corny. We will be around from 10am. There is a lot to do and so much to see, please come, to help if you can, will be really appreciated, but you are also welcome to simply have a cuppa and look around.
Geoff
