Firstly, commiserations to my dear friend.  Her lovely cow who calved and then developed mastitis sadly died in the night.  The calf is being bottle fed and doing well.

The Silkies have decided to stop sitting and 20 eggs lie cold in the nest boxes!  But, on the bird front, the good news is that early this morning Jeremy spotted the barn owl sitting on the fence post at the far end of the field.  This is the first sighting for far too long and I was beginning to believe that all the building work had scared away the owl.

As we set out on our Wednesday walk we stopped so that I could photograph a hen pheasant who was basking in the warm sunshine.  Then we walked along an ancient 17th century track that the farmers have used for all those years to access their fields.  Clarice, the dog, enjoyed the freedom of the footpath and we managed to keep her away from the dead snake that we found along the way (either a grass snake or the rarer smooth snake….thoughts please).  And, finally, when we got back to the village, there was a funeral taking place in the 15th century churchyard of the man who had been the oldest person hereabouts and passed away aged 97.  Rest in peace.