"We’re on a meat fest! We got our pig back on Thursday, so it’s been sausages, bacon, sausages, pork, toad in the hole…I said to the butcher when I picked it up “Mmm, sausages for tea tonight!” He looked at the huge box of sausages and said, “Sausages for tea a lot of nights.” I did have a cold run home – as well as having four boxes of frozen meat in the car, seeping cold air, I didn’t want to put the car heater on. Then, of course, I had to rearrange the freezer to get it all in. I did have a bit of a panic when I thought it wasn’t all going to fit, but it did. I found the box of broad beans I had lifted out during the exercise and forgot to replace on a garage shelf this morning. Not nice.

I overcooked the cake – so we’ve eaten it and I’ll bake another this week REALLY for Christmas.

Unfortunately, Ruby died. I found her one morning in the henhouse. I have another hen with a swollen foot. She’s in isolation, not because she’s infectious but so she can get special treatment, including regular foot spas in Milton fluid and sprays of antibiotic. She’s OK apart from the sore foot and is eating well, so I’m not too worried about her.

I suppose this is the start of the shepherd’s year – tupping. What happens now determines what kind of year we’ll have. The girls have been flirting furiously with the next door farm’s tups, which are in the next field. I have seldom seen such shameless behaviour. Our ewes have now gone to a friend who also has coloured Ryelands, to her tup. We used the same tup last year and he must have been a big hit because the ewes were on the trailer as soon as Dan got the tailgate down. Hussies! The tup we are using is called Garioch Highlander. One of the ewes has been covered already so hopefully the flirting will mean that they will all be pregnant really quickly and I’ll get a compact lambing next year.

Li’l’ Bud and Dickie are home and living on the lawn. They have completed the trimming of the rose hedge and I spent a happy ten minutes this afternoon pulling thorny branches out of Dickie’s fleece. He’s such a good-natured wee soul.

That’s about it for this week – more instalments of the ewes’ love lives next week."