A fairly nondescript, dull and grey start to the morning.  The forecast is for heavy rain and strong winds for a while this afternoon, but it should clear later to give a bright, sunny and warm day tomorrow.

The fields round about are now full of young lambs and these like nothing better than exploring.  This can get them into trouble especially if they can find a way round or under a gate and out onto the road. Do watch out for them especially on the lane up to the Tarn as they have no road sense and will take the shortest route back to mum even if this involves running straight in front of your car.  We had an incident here last evening when a visitor called at my house to tell me that he had just run over two lambs on the hill above Newhouses.  One little gimmer had lost a lot of flesh from a front leg, but no sign of a break.  Her sister was limping a bit on a hind leg, but well able to run back to mum.  Both, I hope, will survive.  Farmers can ill afford to lose healthy livestock in this way.

The pen is now sitting tight on her nest and I have been unable to persuade her to shift to see how many eggs she now has.  It will be a couple of weeks yet before they hatch so we will just have to wait and see.

It's fingers crossed now for some fine settled weather next week so that work can start on site to try to eradicate the last pocket of crayfish plague on Cam Beck.  Paul has been burning the midnight oil in a frantic bid to get all the necessary permissions in place and looked absolutely shattered when I saw him a couple of days ago.  I will report progress.

Ian