Pierre the Peacock has been showing off his magnificent tail during this mating season and Penelope has been disappearing quite a bit lately, indicating that she's preparing a nest somewhere about the place. We'll keep a close eye on her to ensure that she chooses a safe spot where she and the chicks can be protected.

Meanwhile both of them still show up on window sills to spy on what's going on inside.

In April, Eunice the Ewe gave birth to twin lambs following a difficult delivery, but with a bit of TLC and some introductory feeding lessons, all three are doing well.

Eunice's older daughter, Eugenie, had one lamb three weeks later and he's also thriving. It's great to see the three young lambs bounding about in the paddocks as they gain strength and confidence, though, of course, they're all learning that Daisy the goat remains the boss!

One of our Large Black Sows, June, delivered ten tiny piglets late last night. She's exhausted after a difficult delivery but will hopefully regain her strength soon - ten piglets is a lot to keep fed!

The runt of the litter, a little boar, is not doing as well as his brothers and sisters, but we'll keep a close eye on him and hope for the best. May, our oldest sow is also expecting so we're looking forward to another litter in July.

The hot weather meant that our Large Black pigs needed a lot of cooling showers. These proved particulary refreshing for heavily pregnany June.

Bo, our Simmental cross cow, is also heavily pregnant, expecting her third calf in June.

Garden restoration work
We're continuing to make progress on the restoration of our walled garden. The last of the old walls has been repaired and the greenhouse roof has been delivered. We're hoping to fit the roof and the rest of the panes early in June. The doors to the garden are also being prepared but until the garden is secure, though, we can't put our planting plans into full swing - a lesson we learned last year after the rabbits had helped themselves to a new varied diet. Hopefully we'll soon see an end to the resident population of rabbits eating all our vegetables.

Bella has made a complete recovery following her cruciat ligament surgery and is running about like a pup. Poppy's been devising a special physiotherapy programme for her that involves chasing rabbits and crows and is happy to have her playmate up to full speed again.

We enjoyed hosting a corporate social event on the lawn at Croan, earlier in May. A fully kitted out Pub arrived on the back of two articulated lorries, all the way from Holland and 90 people enjoyed a BBQ and some live music on a beautiful evening.