26 February 2012

In Which There is a Lot of Updatage

6 comments
These days, I'm a busy person. The big camera comes out only for college work, so the little one hangs around in my trouser pocket and waits to be used. So this post is going to be very long, and even then it hasn't all of the updates that I need to catch up with. And so, to begin...

Tilly and Merc Update
A long time ago, I announced the birth of Merc (last year, come to think of it). You can have a look at little Merc here. He was tricky to track down, but I found him eventually.

He made an appearance when we were putting some ewes and lambs into his field. He found the smaller lambs simply fascinating. He kept walking over to them and giving them a sniff, before jumping back as if shocked.

Not to be left out, Tilly wandered over and demanded some food.

I demand meal, as there is only fresh spring grass here which holds much flavour. It's not as if I need the meal, but it would be most pleasant.

My answer to that demand was simple, direct and easy to understand.

"No."

~~~

This Lamb is Awesome
This lamb is jet black, but has a brown patch over one eye. Yes, you read correctly. A brown patch over one eye. This is worthy of a photo.

A brown patch over one eye for no apparent reason!

...And no, I am not overreacting.

~~~

Lambs in General (that is, with normal markings and not a brown patch over one eye)
This lamb is sleeping(ish).

This lamb is being watched.

This lamb has really fluffy ears. And speckles.

This lamb is not a lamb at all, but in fact a Sprollie, and a Ben, and is watching some lambs.

This lamb has a turtle neck.

~~~

Teddy and the Noise of Insufferable Doom and Gloom
Teddy hates, with a passion, anything with engine noise. He can't stand the quad, the tractor - the car and Land Rover don't seem to bother him too badly - and so he runs away. Goes to sit beside either Jack, Fly or Ben and refuses to acknowledge my existence and calling of his name until the Thing Of Noise has stopped being noisy. Then he's all happy.

For a dog who has daily exposure to the noises of such things, and has done since he was born, most likely, it makes absolutely no sense. That's why he's never smiling when abord the tractor.

I am miserable.

You see me? This is me, being both bored and miserable at the same time. The misery...

Stop looking at me like that. It's not funny.

~~~

This is a Happy Dog
Happy Dog, meet your readership.

Hi, readership!

Thank you and goodbye.

~~~

Random Things That Don't Fit Anywhere Else
Teddy's face away from The Noise. Somehow, he's still miserable.

Just Sheila.

~~~

An Award!
And now I'm making an 'L' with my fingers agaisnt my forehead and shouting, "Losers!"

Or maybe not. Ahem. Anyway. I won an award for being a Versitile Blogger, with thanks to Brianne. Visit her blog (...but not now, like later, once you've finished here. Who am I kidding, you're already gone. I don't blame you, it's a lovely blog).

Here's the award:

And I'll - if I have time - pass it on to some other blogs and give you some juicy facts about myself. But I've already been typing this for an hour and if I don't stop soon, I will never stop.

~~~

Excuse Me...
...can I say hello to my readership?

19 February 2012

Keeping Up

6 comments
I've been so busy recently that this is my first time on-line in over a week. The sheep took off on the 10th and days blurred into each other, so I found it difficult to work out what day it was. We were all tired, since Dad and I had the extra pleasure of getting up at 1AM every morning. There was a good reason for that - the busiest day saw 38 ewes giving birth to 62 lambs, a new record for the farm. As I said to my Granny, we weren't lambing the ewes, just trying to keep up with them.

On the day before it all went pear-shaped, I borrowed a lens from college. It was, if I remember correctly, a 28mm one. Which, to be honest, doesn't mean that much to me either. But the thin about the lens was that it created really, really blurry backgrounds and had the ability to take pictures well in darker conditions.

Some photos of younger lambs:



But there was a point in taking lots of lamb pictures. I was due to take pictures in a cafe the next morning and needed to be more familiar with the lens. You can see the photos I took here.

And I haven't forgotten Ben's Gotcha Day, I just think there's not point in taking pictures for it two weeks late. Happy-it-was-actually-two-weeks-ago-Gotcha-Day to Ben!

4 February 2012

The Sun, How it Beams

13 comments
We're really very lucky to live where we do. Green fields, amazing views and you're not in the middle of nowhere. I love going for walks, quite understandably, and the view never disappoints.


If you turn around and face the other direction...

Good grief, you made Teddy jump!

It's true. I was snapping away at the view and turned around. The cows next door were following us - where we walked, the cows walked.



Teddy was doing quite a lot of barking at them, but that just made the neighbours more curious. They weren't fazed. And, true to character, Pip had ran off.

We left the cows and view behind and Teddy calmed down.

I got a nice picture of Sheila when we were almost at the yard again.

And Ben too.

I made as many dogs as possible jump onto a very handy metal box. Pip simply wasn't in the mood for jumping and Teddy doesn't seem to understand the concept, so it turned out to be just Sheila and Ben on a box.

Yeah. They weren't exactly in a 'posing' mood. So Ben jumped off and licked my knee. Sheila stayed.

We moved on to an old loader. Posing was better there.


When we all got back to the yard, I took this photo of Teddy:

And that smile *insert poetic comparison to sunbeams here*

***


3 February 2012

Mummy Bubbles

3 comments
Bubbles has had lambs. Twins! Last year she had twins as well, but one was black and one was white. This time, they're like mini-Bubbles. They're mostly black but with white splodges on their faces and necks. It's rare to have a lamb with those markings, let alone two! But they are seriously cute, although difficult to photograph. This is the girl:

And this is the boy:

I'm sorry the pictures are so dark, but as I said, so are the lambs! Bubbles was keeping a close eye on me.

They're a perfect little family. Just... aw.

Coherent thoughts are currently unavailable. You'll just have to settle for 'aw'.

2 February 2012

The Want Faces

4 comments
If the dogs want something, they put on a face. This is Pip's 'I Want' face:

She goes all shy. I have no idea where she got that cut from. It just sort of appeared.

Anyway, Ben's want face:

There is no real description for that.

Teddy's want face involves being very small looking.

I am small. Give me what I want.

And Sheila's want face has BIG eyes.

And they all want into the house here. Who's for a multi-dog party - indoors?

Why? Because they want it.