Spring Equinox is only four days away as I write this latest blog… And outside my flat windows, snow is hurling itself steadily down in large, fat flakes. Daffodils are starting to come out, lambs are being born at Rushall Farm, everyone that I know is heartily wishing that winter was over – yet it seems determined to hang in there just a little longer.

The photo above was taken at Rushall Farm in late January, a time when you rightfully could expect late snowfall. 2012 was such a dire year for farmers – and for field teachers! – that I was sincerely hoping that 2013 would shape up a little better. If you recall, March last year was mostly sunny, warm and dry: primroses and wood anemones were in flower and insects of all sorts were on the wing. So far, however, this March is turning out cold and wet. At Rushall, the tractors have only just been getting out to plough the fields, sowing spring barley and other crops.

Ideally many arable crops would be sown in late autumn, using winter wheat and other winter-sown cereals that usually give higher yields at harvest time. But soils have been so waterlogged it’s simply been impossible to cultivate them. Someone I was talking with this week told me that a farmer friend of theirs has made the decision not to sow any arable crops at all in 2013 – just to let the fields lie fallow and prepare them for sowing next year. And it’s not just crops that have suffered from 2012’s weather extremes: livestock too has been affected, with lambs coming to market at smaller sizes because of the poorer grazing available.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. However chilly the weather, young animals are being born. The Stabiliser cattle at Rushall Farm have had their calves, under cover in the barn away from the cold and wet. Lambing too is in full swing, with the lambing shed full of pregnant ewes and new lambs with their mothers. The cold weather meant that many sheep were late giving birth at first, but once a few had started all the rest began to follow suit. It has been so cold that I’ve had a few younger children in tears during school visits – mostly because they’ve been sent out inadequately dressed by parents. I’ve donated most of my own layers to chilly youngsters on particularly Arctic days, because the last thing I want is for them to be miserable. Some savvy schools have also started to get the hang of this outdoor learning thing, bringing extra clothing to give to kids with feckless parents. But I was wearing thermals and three layers of fleece earlier this week, and I was still cold.

With the Arctic winds bringing a wind chill factor of minus 11ºC, there were a couple of days when even inside the lambing shed it was cold enough for sheep’s drinking water to freeze. We make sure that all the animals have lots of straw bedding, fresh water and food, but I felt quite sorry for some of the lambs born this week – what a welcome to the world! A few older lambs have gone out into the fields with their mothers, fitted with fetching red plastic raincoats to keep out the worst of the weather.

Occasionally a ewe will die giving birth, or will have too many lambs to produce adequate milk for: when this happens these “orphan lambs” are placed under heat lamps (or in Farmer John’s kitchen) and bottle-fed milk by farm workers and visiting groups. Happily a lot of these orphans survive, becoming the cuddly darlings of visiting schoolchildren, Brownies, Guides, Rainbows et al. And bottle feeding an orphan lamb does have the advantage of keeping your lap nice and warm.

Before the hectic rush of lambing started at Rushall Farm, I was working with teachers from two local primary schools, running an INSET session in outdoor learning for their teaching staff. We spent a fun morning up on Greenham Common doing all kinds of spring-themed activities suitable for Early Years and Foundation age children, to give staff ideas for things they can do during their weekly “Muddy Mondays” outdoor learning sessions. It was (inevitably) a very cold day but a good time was had by all – hopefully I will be working with these schools again in the future.

In mid-February I taught an RSPB school field trip at Thatcham Nature Discovery Centre, including pond dipping in a blizzard! After such school visits we ask for feedback from the pupils as well as the teachers – and it was lovely to see how much the children had enjoyed and learnt during their half day session, despite the wintry conditions. However much we adults bemoan modern children’s lack of contact with nature and the great outdoors, it only takes one trip where they can experience hands-on contact with the natural world to start restoring the balance.

One of my remedies for dealing with the cold weather is to find satisfying indoor occupations. I put a spare Saturday afternoon to use in making home-made marmalade, using my mum’s recipe and Seville oranges bought at Newbury market. Seville oranges (only available in late January) are bitter rather than sweet, giving marmalade a wonderful tartness. I made about a dozen jars, many of which made nice presents to friends. As it was the first time I’d used my mum’s recipe I was rather chuffed with how it turned out – and my mum gave it the thumbs up too, after I gave her a jar for her breakfast toast!

Towards the end of January there was more work to be done creating a second large pond near Henley, beside the first one I helped with constructing at the start of the year. The weather was if anything colder and wetter, so it was muddy and heavy work. But now both ponds are pretty much finished, hopefully in time for the toads who hibernate in the woods to make use of them. I plan to visit the site later in the year to see how it’s looking. In the meantime, here’s a photo showing the first pond filling with water, with the second pond just visible in the back left corner of the picture.

The snow has just stopped and the sun has finally come out. I’m hoping that this is a harbinger of things to come very soon: spring arriving, with sunnier days and warmer temperatures. The Met Office is predicting next week that it will rise to as high as 7ºC – positively tropical. But I think my thermals will be in use for while yet, particularly as next week at Rushall Farm we are doing river studies with schools which means I’ll be standing in the River Pang for up to an hour at a time! Fingers crossed that my waders won’t spring a leak…

Snow falling on Newbury, 17th March 2013.