It’s been a great weekend. The Weather has been fantastic. There are buds on the trees, catkins and pussy willow in the hedgerows. My garden is full of bulbs. I really feel like the trees waking up and coming back to life after the winter. There wasn’t a lot that could be done over the winter, now though I have a list a mile long.

The second incubator has arrived and I’m planning a full schedule for both. Right now I have a dozen Cream Legbar that have been in the incubator for twelve days now and due to hatch on 05-April. I need to do a second candling today to see how things are going. I’ve also got eight Silver Appleyard ducks that have been in since Friday and are due in around 28 days. The Blommehöns are really feathering up and growing fast. I’ve already taken them off heat and think they’ll be ready to move out to the barn this week. In some really exciting news a friend has managed to locate me some Brecon Buff geese eggs and I’m expecting those to arrive this week and I’m going to see a couple in Ystad next weekend about some Myskankor (Muscovy ducks). It’s been a good week for poultry shopping. The only thing left on my list is some more black Cochins.

A second veggie bed is now complete waiting for me to run the cultivator over it. I hope to get another done this week, if my back holds out. I’ve lost half a stone since starting digging two weeks ago. Who needs the gym?

We took Troy up to Söderåsen yesterday morning. It was fantastic and we hardly saw another soul. The mist was just burning off in the valley making everything look in soft focus. We walked the norra rundan; a seven kilometre circular walk around Kopperhatten. Despite being so close to major population centres, it always seems like you’re the only people there. I guess that’s part of the magic and what keeps drawing me back.

As I’m writing this I’m sat watching a pair of Red Kites wheel over the land just riding the wind. I could watch them all day. They just hang there in a seemingly effortless way. I think they are nesting in the woodland beyond the fields. They made me a little nervous for the chickens at first, but they don’t seem threatened by them. If the chickens aren’t worried, I suppose I don’t have cause to be. I can just sit back, watch and enjoy.