Spring Arrives

It's amazing when suddenly you realise that Spring has arrived. We have been so busy here at Lambriggan Court that weeks, months and even apparently seasons are passing by and here we are going through our second Spring at Lambriggan Court. The climate in Cornwall is definately milder - we have only had two frosts this winter where as I know north of the border ( across the Tamar ) the weather had been much harsher. The grass has continued to grow throughout the Winter which has been great for our Alpacas Gwineas and Gruda. For the last few weeks we have also had a neighbours three horses grazing in the paddock and up in the orchard. Jon seems to be pleased with the move to the orchard as the horses have been 'ambushing' him as he has been making his way around the paddock feeding the rheas and chickens and for some reason has always been a little nervous of horses. This is a man who can face a 6ft. male rhea in mating mode (admittedly with a broom stick and dustbin lid to fend him off) but still tries to sneak into the paddock without the horses seeing him. No chance!
With the grass still growing and the daffodils having been in full bloom since November and the Camellias not long after , we have had so much colour around for so long that it's really not surprising that Spring has slipped in unnoticed. The Primroses and the Crocusses (or is it crocii? unsure on that one ) have added to the colour and then a couple of weeks ago the roses started blooming.
Spring hasn't gone unnoticed of course by the birds and animals. The Alpaca are like Spring lambs at the moment . Sitting writing this at on my old scrubbed Victorian table in the kitchen with the aga warming my back quite nicely Gwineas and Gruda keep appearing in my peripheral vision though the kitchen window. One second there then gone again. On top of the dry stone wall then down on the grass. Back up on the wall again. That baby alpaca or 'cria' is becoming a distinct possibility! The birds are all strutting and displaying and some showing signs of wanting to build nests. The Canadian Geese arrived in full cry and tried to settle on our lakes but our swans - notably the males were having none of that. The geese were last seen heading to a neighbouring farmer's lake instead.
Testosterone is running rampant with the young male wallabies - very interesting! The storks have been given a nesting platform and seem to know what to do with it. The mara tend to congregate at the moment in their dens so one hopes that they are full of the joys of Spring too.
The owls are disappearing into nesting boxes and our neighbours Jen and Chris have been known to comment that the 'dawn chorus' is becoming very interesting.