Country diary: The farm is mourning Moss, 14 years old and alert to the end | Andrea Meanwell

Tebay, Cumbria: While new life begins up on our hills, down at the farmstead I say goodbye to a dear companion Lambing is still in full swing here, and each evening I start my last rounds at 8.30pm, as by 9.30pm it will be too dark to see the sheep without the headlights of the quad bike. Our main flock of sheep lamb outside, and when the time comes they take themselves off away from the others, usually at dusk or dawn. I know that two sheep have gone up towards the railway line, so I drive along to check them as darkness falls. From up here I can see both north and south, with the lights of the trucks of the M6 reminding me that the motorway is there. I do not process the sound of the motorway any more, and during the daytime I forget that it is there. A train speeds past with lights on inside, and I think about the thousands of people who pass through this valley every day without stopping or thinking about our lives here. I’m in a contemplative mood, as this morning I found one of my border collies, Moss, had died during the night. She had been my companion for 14 years after I bought her from a farm in Lancashire in 2012. It was snowing when we collected her, so it was a flying