Although our barograph has shown a decrease in pressure compered to the previous week, the weather has not been too bad.

A mixture of sunshine and an occasional shower is quite acceptable.

The countryside looks beautiful with an array of spring flowers and now the hedgerows are white with hawthorn blossom.

In fact the blossom on trees and shrubs this spring has never looked better, so there should be a bumper harvest. Hawthorn blossom is made up of white flowers with a sickly, sweet scent, producing fleshy dark red berries called haws in the autumn, which are food for many birds including fieldfares and redwings.

Hawthorn is fast growing, has sharp spines, and makes an almost impenetrable barrier when it is cut back and laid. Hawthorns can grow almost anywhere and have been used as field boundaries for centuries.

Richard and I drove to north Devon on Sunday to visit our daughter Adele and her family at Chuggaton Farm.

It was a lovely sunny day, when we met up with them at a fun run in Swimbridge, a local village. Our grandchildren took part in the 3km run, both winning a cup in their respective categories.

Steve,our son-in-law, and Adele, did not have to do the milking that day, as a lady does relief milking for them every other weekend.

The cows are out by day and night on a strip-grazing system like ours. Like us, they have done their first cut silage, which is now sealed in the clamp. They had a problem with the forage harvester at one point, but managed to ensile all the grass before it rained.

Early one morning, here on Manor Farm, Ian sprayed all the maize fields with a herbicide as the weeds were growing thick and fast between the rows of young seedlings.

It was a fine, calm morning – ideal conditions for spraying. Matt has been spreading slurry from our large store onto the mowed grass fields, but before he could do this Richard replaced the power-take-off (PTO) guard on the slurry tanker.

It is most important that all the PTOs are properly covered, as accidents, occurring as a result of unguarded PTOs, are still too frequent.

These fields have also been given a top-up of nitrogen fertiliser. The rest of the grass fields have already had enough manure put on them, so they will be given a predetermined amount of nitrogen and potash. This will hopefully give us a good second crop of grass.

On Stowell Farm, shearing has begun. Last year’s ewe lambs (shearlings) were shorn by a Scotsman and an Englishman, with a New Zealander packing the wool into large sacks.

The rest of the week was taken up with worming and giving this year’s lambs their second vaccination to protect them from a variety of clostridial diseases. The lambs born to ewes using artificial insemination were also weighed.

All the ewes were given a pour-on insecticide to help protect them from the risk of fly-strike.

During the week at Roves farm, I have spent two very enjoyable days with two classes of pre-school children called “The Caterpillars” from the Millbrook Primary School in Swindon.

I took them on a tractor ride, did some pond-dipping and introduced them to all the animals. Roves Farm now has a sheep called Sean, a scarecrow called Jo and in the pond is a tadpole called Terry.