April – Easter egg hunts & lambing

Bottle feeding orphan tame lambs

April has got to be one of my favourite months; not only is my birthday (on Earth Day 22nd April – Let’s do our bit to help save planet Earth), but the days are warming up and getting longer and nature is doing its magic, as colourful spring bulbs, blossom and animals start to bring some colour & new life into the world. We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful place and we love sharing it with you.

It’s great to get outside, enjoy spring walks through the woodland as the young, fresh leaves unfold. It’s total escapism in the woodland, where we can rekindle our connection with nature, known as #forestbathing, good for the mind, body & soul.

Our Jacob ewes are due to lamb in April so you may be lucky enough to witness the birth of a lamb or at least enjoy watching lambs gambling in the fileds in the evening, as the sun sets.

With Easter on the 9th April, we have some hens eggs in the incubator, hoping that chicks will hatch Easter weekend.

Easter Eggs

On Easter day there’s always an Easter egg hunt here at the farm and there are lots of Easter activities at many North Devon attractions too; RHS Rosemoor Gardens Giant Easter Egg Hunt 1^st – 16^th April. Coombe Martin Wildlife & Dinosaur Park 27^th March – 16^th April Find 10 eggs around the park and collect a prize. Hartland Abbey & Gardens Easter fun & Bluebells 9th & 10th April. Find the chicks in Clovelly 7th – 10th April. Unique Easter Grotto at adventure park ‘The Milkyway’ 1st – 14th April. Quince Honey Farm 7th – 10th April -Find the nests, solve a riddle to find your prize.

Castle Hill Gardens, just 2 miles form Huxtable Farm is the perfect garden to visit in Spring, with its magnolias, camilias, spring bulbs, babbling streams, folly’s and beautiful areas carpeted areas of primroses. On Bank Holiday Monday 10th April is the Easter Bunny Hunt with lots of family fun too; A magician, face painters & bouncy castle.

Camping at Huxtable Farm

Bookings for the B&B and the three unique camping pitches are coming in as visitors are making sure they get the room and or camping pitch they want. We look forward to hearing from you too.

Check available B&B dates at Huxtable Farm B&B and available Camping Pitches (Only three exclusive pitches each with their own wash room)

B&B availability

Camping availability

Wishing you a very happy & healthy Easter from all at Huxtable Farm

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Comments Off Written by Jackie Payne

March – Mothers Day and Lambing

Orphan tame lamb, Woolly is expecting lambs herself this year

Love this time of year, the days are getting longer, brighter and drier with some refreshing frosty mornings. Nature is waking up the daffodils, crocuses and primroses bringing some much needed colour to the farm. Some bees are venturing out for a little food and the frogs and toads are spawning in the pond. It’s also a time of sleep deprivation & great anticipation, as we get up at various times during the night to check on the sheep to see if they require any lambing assistance.

With Mother’s Day (14h March) approaching we get the chance to express our love to all Mothers i.e those who have strong bonds with children whether they are their own blood siblings or not.

Set of 5 cards of your choice £10

Here are some idea’s to help you spoil your special Mum; Buy a unique gift from Huxtable Farm’s Shop; 100% Jacob wool throws, cushions, scarves, yarn and knitting kits or some notelets or a print painted by Jackie.

Huxtable Farm Jacob wool knitting kits

Give your mother a Voucher to stay at Huxtable Farm B&B at sometime later this year, where she will be welcomed with a Devon cream tea then in the morning enjoy a delicious freshly cooked breakfast next to the crackling log fire in the medieval dining room – Telephone 01598 760254 or e-mail for more details.

Check available B&B dates at Huxtable Farm B&B and available Camping Pitches (Only three exclusive pitches each with their own wash room)

B&B availability Camping availability

Print Nineteen Card

Don’t for get that all important Mother’s Day card too. Our daughter, Natalie has that unique, individual, botanical card you may wish to send from Printnineteen. Quite a bit of the foliage used by Natalie in her prints has been sourced from Huxtable Farm.

We’re going to miss you this lambing season and Easter but we look forward to welcoming you later in the year.

Please have a look at the fantastic variety of events due to take place in North Devon during 2021 by looking at Huxtable Farm B&B’s local Events/Farm Calendar so that you can plan your next stay to coincide with an event that interests you.

Check available B&B dates at Huxtable Farm B&B and available Camping Pitches (Only three exclusive pitches each with their own wash room)

B&B availability Camping availability

Children Easter Egg Hunt

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May at Huxtable Farm B&B Devon & Covid-19 Update

We hope you are keeping well and staying safe as we enter our sixth week in lockdown.

Bluebells Pinkbells-&-Whitebells

Antony & I have been staying at the farm, looking after our stock, carrying on with the upkeep and maintenance of Huxtable Farm’s accommodation, gardens and farmland so that we are ready to welcome you back when the time comes.

We are monitoring government advice and bearing in mind the welfare of everyone who visits Huxtable Farm B&B, we have decided to close Huxtable Farm B&B until the 4th July 2020. However, we will continue to monitor the situation closely and take advice from the appropriate authorities and we will only reopen when it is confirmed that we have the ‘all clear’ to do so. If this means that we have to extend the temporary closer further, we will keep you updated.

Bee on Blossom

Rebook for a future date; We very much look forward to the day when we can welcome you to Huxtable Farm B&B again. With this in mind, if you already have a booking with us we very much hope that you will postpone your booking and rearrange for a later date. Please do not hesitate to contact us via e-mail at jackie@huxtablefarm.co.uk

Please have a look at the fantastic variety of events due to take place in North Devon during 2020 by looking at Huxtable Farm B&B’s local Events/Farm Calendar so that you can plan your next stay to coincide with an event that interests you. Click or the button below to Check available dates at Huxtable Farm B&B.

Availability

Woolly – last years tame orphan lamb

Right now, it’s essential that we all continue to follow government advice, stay at home and support our dedicated front line service personnel. We would like to thank them all for the incredible work they are doing keeping this country going. We would also like to thank you for your patience, understanding and support during this extraordinary time.

We hope you enjoy the videos below of this years lambs at Huxtable Farm B&B. For more videos & photographs please do not hesitate to connect with us via our social media channels; Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and Blog (News) on our website.

We look forward to welcoming you back to Huxtable Farm B&B just as soon as we are able to do so.

In the meantime, please take care, keep well and stay safe.

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Comments Off Written by Jackie Payne

Happy Easter from all at Huxtable Farm B&B Devon

Children Easter Egg Hunt

As I fed the sheep, lambs, hens & chicks followed by a walk around the farms Devon Wildlife Trail this morning I thought about the many happy Easter weekends we have spent with our guests at Huxtable Farm B&B. After breakfast, the excitement on the faces of children looking for Easter eggs on the Easter Egg Hunt in the garden, followed by bottle feeding the tamed lambs and holding a real live Easter chick. We’re missing sharing these special Spring moments with you all   Antony, Bella(dog) & I are sorry that you are unable to join us this year, but we are thinking of you and sending you all our very best wishes for a Happy Easter and hoping that you can enjoy this weekend as much as possible, despite the very challenging circumstances that we all facing.

Jacob lamb resting

I hope you enjoy the video below of this years Easter Chicks at Huxtable Farm B&B. For more videos & photographs please do not hesitate to connect with us via our social media channels; Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and Blog (News) on our website.

Hopefully, when this pendemic is all over we will see you later in the year.

Check available dates at Huxtable Farm B&B, West Buckland, Barnstaple, Devon and Exmoor

Availability

We look forward to welcoming you back to Huxtable Farm B&B just as soon as we are able to do so. In the meantime, please take care, keep well and stay safe.

Easter at Huxtable Farm B&B Devon

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Spring lambs and sunshine :)

Jacob lamb resting

Thoughts are with everyone during this Corvid-19 pandemic, it all feels so surreal!

Here at Huxtable Farm Bed and Breakfast, we have decided to close initially until the 1st May and will review at the end of April whether this will need to be extended. We are respecting the government’s recommendations and would hate to be a reason for spreading Corvid-19 further.

If you have any bookings with us in the immediate future please do get in contact if we haven’t contacted you already, so that we can arrange to postone your break until later in the year.

Eggs in incubator

Life here on the farm continues; Our small flock of The Jacob ewes have started lambing.

Some eggs are now in the incubator and one of our hens has gone broody so we should have some chicks hatching around Easter weekend. In everyones absence a tawny owl has decided to move in to an old dove hole in the farmhouse and is sitting on her eggs.

Tawny owl on eggs

Hopefully, when this pendemic is all over we will see you later in the year.

Check available dates at Huxtable Farm B&B, West Buckland, Barnstaple, Devon and Exmoor

Availability

In the meantime, we wish you all the very best in the weeks ahead and hope that you, your family & friends stay safe & healthy.

As promised here’s some photographs for you to enjoy.

Jacob lamb feeding

Jacob ewe and lamb at trough

Jacob ewe and lambs

Jacob lambs

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July, things to do in Devon

Orphan tame lambs

The orphan tame lambs have just been weaned off their bottles of milk, enjoying the grass especially if it’s on the other side of the fence!

rhubarb, gooseberries and redcurrants

Picking has started in the fruit garden – Gooseberry’s, redcurrants, rhubarb and the raspberries will be ready soon.

Fresh home-grown fruit & compotes for the breakfast table and homemade jams – ‘Elderflower & Gooseberry’ is a firm favourite on Huxtable Farm’s home baked granary toast or croissant.

Things to do/Events this July;

Relax in Huxtable Farm B&B’s garden

Enjoy sitting the garden at Huxtable Farm or walk the farm’s Devon Wildlife Farm Trail

June 15th – 21st July – RHS Garden Rosemoor – Rose Festival – The largest rose gardens in the South West.

29th July Woolsery Agricultural Show, near Clovelly

National Trust Arlington Court – What’s on in July

Things to do for free at Huxtable Farm B&B

27th July Tiverton Mid Devon Show

7th August North Devon Show

There are so many beautiful gardens to visit in North Devon; Castle Hill only 2 miles from Huxtable Farm B&B, Marwood Hill gardens just the other side of Barnstaple, Tapeley Park at Instow and National Trust Arlington Court 12 miles away.

Gardens of North Devon
RHS Rosemoor Rose Festival July

Coombe Martin Wildlife & Dinosaur Park, a zoo with a difference !

Tiverton Canal Barge Ride

A few photographs taken a round the farm recently for you to ENJOY 🙂

Woodpecker meets Owl !

Shorn Jacob sheep

Lily in the Devon Wildlife Pond

Damselfly

Fly Catcher on Nest

Time to sit back and watch the world go by !

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2018 lambs, frosty mornings & woolly Christmas gifts

Frosty leaves

Enjoying these fresh, crisp, frosty mornings – Some plants look gorgeous in the frost!

Frosty grass and ewes

The rams are still with the ewes, so with a gestation period of 21 weeks lambing will take place between the 25th March and throughout the 2018 #Easter holidays – Always such a lovely time of year when the lambs are here!

Jacob ram with ewes

Huxtable Farm Jacob wool products - Christmas gifts

Huxtable Farm Jacob wool products – Christmas and 7th (wool) Anniversary gifts

Please remember, if you’re looking for a unique Christmas or 7th (wool) Anniversary gift or just want to wrap up warm this winter please do have a look at Huxtable Farm B&B’s Jacob Wool products for sale; 100% wool throws, knee rugs, cushions, scarves, knitting kits, hand knitted hats and cowls. We also have 100gm balls of Jacob sheep wool in three different colours, cream, grey & dark brown.

Throws by the fire

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April – Lambs, primroses and Easter chicks

Spring flowers at Huxtable Farm

The spring garden is looking so colourful with bright sunshine yellow daffodils and primroses (Devon’s County Flower), blue grape hyacinths and beautiful pink camellias.

This is my favourite time of year; the birds are singing, the ewes have started #lambing (the Jacob lambs are so adorable) and we have a few broody hens sitting on eggs and some eggs in the incubator due to hatch on #Easter day

With Easter (16th April) approaching here are a few event’s occurring near to Huxtable Farm Bed and Breakfast (click on this link), in North Devon.

Not only is there so much to see and do on and around the farm, there are so many #Easter #Egg hunts to look forward to at all the attractions in the area; Quince Honey Farm, The Big Sheep, The Milky Way, NT Arlington Court, RHS Rosemoor, Hartland Abbey and find the Easter chicks at Clovelly!

Hawthorn blossom

Other events this March in the area include;

RHS Rosemoor Easter Lindt Gold Bunny Hunt (1st -17th April) & Easter crafts

Easter fun at National Trust Arlington Court & Cadburys Easter Eggs Hunt (14-17Th April)

April at Huxtable Farm B&B, Devon, Exmoor near Barnstaple and South Molton March at Huxtable Farm B&B, Devon, Exmoor near Barnstaple and South Molton

Running across countryside field

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Comments Off Written by Jackie Payne

April; Lambs, spring flowers and woodland walks

April; Lambs, spring flower – primroses and daffodils. Woodland walks

The last of the pregnant ewes has had her lambs, so we now have a beautiful flock of Jacobs with lambs gambling in the spring sunshine.
The frog tadpoles have hatched and the toads are starting to lay their strings of eggs spawn in the pond.
The Spring flowers are brightening up the garden and farm; dwarf daffodils, primroses (Devon’s county flower) and even the odd bluebell is starting to come out!

Bella, the springer spaniel is happy to show you the way on your walk

Enjoy the farm Devon wildlife trail, taking you for a walk through the woodland, fields and next to the pond and stream.

It’s such a beautiful time of year made even more special by the clear starry nights we experience as Huxtable Farm is situated within Exmoor’s Dark Sky Reserve. At night time you may even hear the Tawny owls calling and see a bat or two flying in the courtyard.

We look forward to seeing you soon to share in some of nature’s delights, click on the following link to view Video’s of Huxtable Farm B&B and its Devon farm wildlife.

April events in the area please click on the links for more details;

15th April National Open Gardens Day RHS Rosemoor (Free entry)

17th & 24th April Hartland Abbey Bluebell Days

1st – 3rd April Spring Quilt Festival Westpoint Exeter

30th April – 7th May North Devon & Exmoor Walking Festival

What’s on at North Devon Theatres

Until the 10th April National Trust Arlington Court – Daffodil trail

Easter fun for the first week in April at

Quince Honey Farm, South Molton

The Big Sheep

The Milky Way

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