Easter and our visitors enjoy the spring weather.

The daffodils on the front are out and the ash is starting to put out buds - we always watch to see if the oak comes out before the ash because folklore says that, if it does, we will only "have a splash" whereas ash before the oak means we're in for a "soak!"
Last summer was so wet after a lovely dry spring that we certainly want a splash this year.
We have had such variable weather over Easter but that didn't deter our regular visitors who went off up the hills whenever the rain cleared.

Diamond and Sapphy and their new very pretty Border collie had a thoroughly relaxing holiday after the excitements of Crufts.

These two were great favourite of ours -Gem and Jess Hamson who are sadly now no longer with us but the latest addition to the family is a little star and had a wonderful holiday here over Easter with her older "sisters" Sapphy and Diamond.

Our doggie visitors love the exciting rabbit and sheep smells on their walks and always return exhausted and needing a good drink at the spout in the farmyard.

Snow, daffodils at last; the troops come home and we get a pony!

I suppose we are complacent about winters now and are taken by surprise when we wake up to a snowfall.There wasn't much snow - just enough to look pretty - this is the view across the farmyard.

Nic always used to say that the farmyard looked best under 6 inches of snow but personally I prefer it so that I can walk without fear of falling over. This year we have only had a day of a light powdering and it went within hours - not even enough for a snowman to be built.Eccles Pike is always dramatic whatever the weather - if only we got blue skies with the snow! There was a bit of sun but I missed taking the photo in time, hence the rather gloomy view. The sheep were as always resilient and just scratched through the thin layer of snow to reach the grass and of course, as lambing is imminent, Nic is feeding them molasses with minerals and extra hay so they certainly don't go hungry.
The next day I was on my way across the hill to Chapel-en-le -Frith when I saw this beautifully dramatic sky over South head and Mount Famine .
You can just see the bypass in the bottom of this picture and some cars had stopped in the layby to admire the stunning view.

One of our favourite walks for our visitors is across Cracken Edge, over the A624 and round Mount Famine to South Head, back into Chinley and home. You can just see the edge of the village with Cracken Edge jutting out above it - the farm is out of sight to the left of the picture.

Chinley is quite a sprawling village now and in the last 15 years all the houses down to the right have been built.

In summer these hills will all be beautifully green. I always feel that spring is on the way when, in spite of gales and lashing rain my brave little daffodils start flowering in the narrow lane just before Windy Bend. Inevitably a ggiant gap has fallen in the narrow just after Nic had repaired another one close by - truly a hill farmer's work is never done as far as drystone walling is concerned.The gales didn't affect us much - we had a night of high wind but no trees or even branches came down. other parts of the country weren't as luckyBut it is not all work and last Friday we went over to St Helens to watch Nic's rugby league team snatch victory from Hull in the last 5 minutes of play.And we also enjoyed a belated birthday meal at our favourite Italian restaurant- the Vecchia Italia - in Chapel-en-le-Frith with our good friends Tony and Effie.
The place was packed and buzzing and the food and welcome was as good as ever. It makes us feel really old as Giovanni's son Salvi is now front of house and we remember when he was a toddler! Dad was on duty in the kitchenEarlier in the day we had braved a freezingly cold wind to go over to Buxton as the local Mercian Regiment - an amalgamation of the Cheshires and the Sherwood Foresters- was being given the freedom of the Borough and were marching through the town to a ceremony in the Pavilion Gardens. The lady Mayoress inspected the troops and Nic and I flew the flag. The lads have been in Afghanistan and it was good to see them back but they must have been chilled to the bone as the wind was icy. it was a moving and impressive ceremony and a good turnout to show our appreciation of their bravery.The big excitement for our grandchildren has been the arrival of Poppy, a sweet looking but difficult to catch pony!Karen has spent any spare moments in her busy day enticing the little beast into a smaller field so that she can get her used to being held and eventually ridden.
Nicole is very thrilled with her pony and William is thinking about it but is still much happier if he can sit in the digger when daddy is making the farmyard look tidy!His face says it all!And to round off a happy week, Karen had a birthday and little William decorated her cake with me while Daddy and Nicole went to the Trafford Centre to choose a special present