New Year is no problem for Huttonian and 'the house party' as we were all in bed at the respectable hour of 11. TV was all jingoistic retrospectives and a succession of farflung capitals greeting the new year with fireworks and vomit. The neighbours set off a few tentative rockets at 12-15 am and then the Merse returned to its normal quietude. So with calm heads we enjoyed the first day of 2006 visiting early lambs some of whom had missed 2005 in its entirely and were as yet unaware of the tang of mint sauce which is their ultimate destiny.
The two white ones were barely seven hours old born as Newfoundland entered the new year. The black headed two day old is of an exotic cross breed, and has hair instead of wool so is even more likely to end up on a platter as being fit for nothing else useful. Ms KB missed the entire lambing as she was exhausted from her first solo run on the nursery slopes. Now the snow has gone her training schedule is totally disrupted.  ¶ 2:42 PM