The Beast From The East Approaches

By the time I get round to publishing this post, The Beast from the East may well be the Blast from the Past, but here goes anyway.

Monday 26th February 2018

A terrible practical joke

The beast from the east is looming. We had a light dusting of snow and the cold air outside is starting to feel more uncomfortable than invigorating.

Worst of all, somebody had decided to play a practical joke on me and fill the pond up with tiny polystyrene balls.

I decided to light the fire and stay inside sowing seeds.

Arthur was not well today, which is always worrying. He was sick several times and was feeling very sorry for himself.

Tuesday 27th February 2018

Snow surprise

A fairly restless night as Arthur was sick twice more... on the bed!

I eventually woke up just short of 9 o'clock to see snow falling thick and fast outside.

Gerry was in two minds whether to go out or not.

I let the poultry out. Some of them were pretty bemused. Only Elvis, the guinea fowl and some of the geese have ever seen this much snow before.

Considering their tropical origins, guinea fowl are incredibly hardy.

They spent the night outside on the fence as usual.

Elvis is a veteran of the snow

The most snow the Muscovies have ever seen. They seemed unperturbed.

I checked that the turkey netting was not accumulating snow and let down the brassica netting before it weighed down too much. Then I wheeled a fresh load of hay down to the sheep. They are incredibly hardy and look in their element in this weather. I doubt the cold and wet penetrate very far at all into their thick, lanolin filled fleece.

The Shetland sheep don't even bat an eyelid.

They make Northerners look like soft Southerners!

For today that was it for snow. In fact it turned into a sunny day, with just the occasional flurry, and by late afternoon most of the snow was gone again. But we are in for colder days and may be lucky to see the thermometer top zero before the weekend.

News on Arthur. He is gradually looking better, although still feeling more than a little sorry for himself. He did venture outside for a little bit of fresh air while Boris engaged in the fruitless task of chasing snow balls!