It had been a while since I’d been to the farm so I decided to pop by just after one of May’s many bank holidays so that I could see the lambs, and also I hadn’t yet been to see the meerkats which they now, somewhat randomly, have in their barn.

It had been a while since I’d been to the farm so I decided to pop by just after one of May’s many bank holidays so that I could see the lambs, and also I hadn’t yet been to see the meerkats which they now, somewhat randomly, have in their barn.
I’m a fairly regular visitor to the farm though I haven’t found time to visit since this trip in the spring. There were lots of baby animals, my favourites definitely being the very cute piglets, called Truffles and Penelope.
The gardens at Canons Ashby present a lovely first impression of the estate. Edward Dryden, beginning in 1908, was largely responsible for the development of the gardens as it looks today. He wanted to create an organised landscape of geometric shapes.
A few weeks ago I paid a visit to Stonebridge City Farm which I’ve written about on many previous occasions. This time I was delighted to see that they had lambs and kids in the fields, so here are a few of my favourite photos.
Over the gloriously sunny Early May Bank Holiday weekend I paid a trip to Stonebridge City Farm to see the lambs, but they also had some young calves and a seriously inquisitive cockerel.
Last month we headed to Calke Abbey in Derbyshire as the farm there was inviting people to come and see the newborn lambs from Calke’s rare breed of Portland sheep. We had been planning on going the previous weekend but had to postpone because of the snow, luckily this time it was dry and fairly warm and it was finally starting to look like spring. There were plenty of lambs and sheep outside and in the barn where we arrived just seconds after one of the lambs was born.
Stanton Moor is an area of the Peak District in Derbyshire not far from Matlock and site of the Nine Ladies Stone Circle, dating from the Bronze Age. The moor has been used for thousands of years for ceremonies, farming and quarrying.
On a sunny day last year we headed to Derbyshire and Hardwick Hall, a stunning Elizabethan house built by Elizabeth Shrewsbury, best known as Bess of Hardwick. Rather than explore the house on this visit we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and go on some of the walks around the Estate and the gardens, which did however bring us close enough to admire the Hall.
Avebury is one of the world’s largest prehistoric stone circles and we visited it in July in conjunction with visits to Stonehenge and Avebury Manor.
On what turned out to be a surprisingly sunny day in October we headed out to Stonebridge City Farm which, as the name suggests, is right in the heart of Nottingham City. The barn was erected in 1980 and the first animals to be housed there were 2 goats, but it is now home to a range of animals from chickens to cows and horses, as well as gardens and a small nature trial.