Visit to Meadow Farm

Earlier in my blog I mentioned that I would find great things to do in Richmond and than write about it so other people (if anyone should ever read this!!) can go and see them as well.
Meadow Farm is one of those places and I learned about it from my friend Martina who had been there many times and it seems so had everyone else. It was just me who did not know about it. So much for discovering Richmond. Well, it looked like I had some catching up to do and therefore went there two days in a row!!! On the second day, Sunday, I took my boys and we took a TOUR of the place. The tour consisted of walking from chicken pen to sheep pen to pig pen and of course horsy paddock and not to forget the vegetable garden, which looked more like a barren wasteland. Andi our guide still managed to find some hardy herbs and gave us great tips of how to prevent mice from entering your house by planting rosemary and lavender close to wherever the cute rodents have their little doors. Might just try that with our permanent house guest who refuses to eat the yummie stuff we put into the traps.
Andi also introduced us to Frosty the lamb, which was hand raised as it had been rejected by its mom. Needless to say the lamb is looking well and will go nicely with the home grown rosemary when the time has come;-)
We where also able to admire a praying mantis nest, which really looked like a dried up leaf, but according to Andi housed about 20 of the lovely creatures. On our tour, we where joined by another family and Finley quickly made friends with the two girls. He borrowed the youngest one's stroller and had a ball pushing it through the farm yard. Steve put a Rugby ball in it to remind him that he is actually a boy;-)))
Meadow farm has largely been keept as it was in 1860 and the aniamals and plants all derive from those days. This does not sound right!! The animals and plants are not really that old, they had of course fathers and mothers and grannnies and great great...bla, bla bla...!!!
Nice place for kids and I bet really great in the summer when they do all kinds of courses and lessons and people can help shear the sheep, every Saturday in April if I remember correctly.