Sunshine, goats, chickens and pigs ........... our neighbours !!!!!

The joys of spring are definitely upon us now, the fields are full of wild flowers, the sun is shining from dawn till dusk and temperatures are hitting low 20's and it feels like absolute bliss .... (although I'm not foolish enough to think it is here till the summer sets in, as I'm sure there will be more cloud, cooler days and rain to fall the before summer!) Anyway the goats are out grazing, the familiar sound of petrol strimmers and chainsaws humming away, small fires burning spent branches from the pruning of trees and tractors buzzing up and down the lane, the fruit trees bursting out with blossom are all signs that spring is here and nows the time to be cleaning and tidying up in the garden and planting out ready for harvesting our crops in the summer.

For the first time ever I am attempting to grow potatoes. We bought a sack of seed potatoes (white potatoes) and at the moment they are spread out on the cellar floor waiting for them to sprout. My Portuguese friend Filomena gave me some of her seed potatoes (red potatoes) which had already sprouted and has shown me how to plant up these seed by cutting the potatoes and placing the sliced potatoe with its tuber on end upwards then covering with soil, spaced out in rows so hopefully, fingers crossed and the weather helps me out, we are looking forward to producing our own delicious spuds! Red potatoes seem to be more commonly grown here and Filomena assures me they grow better here than white ones.

I called on my friend Filomena yesterday and she took me to see her goats as one had given birth 4 hours earlier and another one born the previous day. Ah soooo cute, the new born was having a little play around and happily sucking away at his mother's milk.

Newborn just four hours old and the darker one a day old