It’s a glorious spring morning in the Borrowdale Valley. And a real joy working in the garden listening to the birds, and the male mallard scuttling about the land whilst the female tenders their nest. This year, for the first time we have partridges taking advantage of the food available in the bird feeders. As for flowers, the snowdrops have been and gone and the daffodils are blooming. There are two grey squirrels in the hotel grounds but the “squirrel man” wasn’t able to shoot them today so the young red squirrels have disappeared for now.