O warmes, warmes sonnenlicht

Lack of posting recently, partly because of medical circumstances getting in the way, and partly because there was nothing very dramatic to report.

After periods of drought, followed by deluge, followed by a long, cold winter, the weather recently has been incredibly uneventful. Periods of sun, followed by a bit of rain, followed by a bit more sun, and temperatures just about normal, everything just, well ....... nice. The trees have grown a bit more. The grass has grown, with the sheep keeping it under control. The nettles have grown, of course, but a bit of strimming now and again keeps them down.

Until this week. Now it's hot. Certainly hot enough for the sheep to take to their shelter and start shedding wool in great clumps of the stuff. They are being careful not to run about too much during the day, and we are trying not to disturb them because the presence of a human is likely to make them run about.

Carrot, looking shorn

What has happened is that the most junior sheep, Carrot and Custard, shed their fleece quite early. It's probably the first time they've done this. The others are in varying stages of deshabille, and are looking a bit like part-shorn poodles (with horns, obviously). 

Sheep and shelter - not shared around!

What tends to happen is that volume of fleece tends to denote status: Blodwen, the bossy one who stamps her hoof if the ewe nuts aren't being put out fast enough, has the most wool, and the youngest ones have moulted the most. The younger pair are also sometimes outside the shelter, when the others are inside, which seems hard.

The trees, let's not forget them, are being given extra water, in case the current conditions last longer. You have to think ahead. It's really warm sunshine, so here's the prisoner's chorus from Fidelio that's even better than the well known prisoner's chorus on the subject: