This is one of the months that I enjoy most. The depths of winter, with beautiful days of snow, ice and frost. Yet, the first signs of the New Year beginning to show, the Aconite's in the garden, the Lords and Ladies pushing through in the hedgerows and the catkins showing, yellow on Hazel and purple on the Alders.

Another batch of cows have calved, sadly in many cases, followed by a trip to the Hunt Kennels to dispose of the calf. What a crazy world we live in, that animals we have worked so hard to bring into this world, must be killed.

The Organic management continues to go well, with all the animals doing very well. The weather has been dry enough for us to spread muck on another 100 acres of grassland and we continue to build up our stocks of composted muck for spreading in the spring.

The month has been a rather sad one for me (having lost my mum). The countryside has an even sharper look, feel and smell about it and makes one even more determined to beat this crisis that faces us, she would.

I am not a hunting man, but I do not agree with this bigoted vote this month in parliament, it seems to me that no Hunted fox , hare, mink or stag is ever wounded, the same cannot be said for shooting, snaring or trapping as a form of control. So, on March 18th. I shall be in London to march against a government that takes no notice of its own (The Burns) report, does not understand (nor wants to) the views of its Rural minority and just does not appear to grasp the enormity of the depression that the people of the countryside have been driven into.

That's enough of that. Talking of Foxes, this is the time of year that the dog foxes will travel miles to find a vixen and can often be seen in full daylight apparently quite tame. It is also the time for the most exiting and longest hunts, as the dog fox runs all the way back home, which may be several miles from where he was found.

The first lambs are appearing in the fields, the year is off to a new start.