June has thus far been a remarkably attractive month, filled with delightful moments amid all the hard work. Tink and Slightly have been working just as hard, as you can see - in fact, they've been catching thrushes and sparrows for hearty consumption, and in one case had to be told rather sternly that while they could keep their catch, to eat it outside, please! Some people just don't understand the kitty heart.
The sheep have also been enjoying the warmer weather - it's been cool enough that they don't need to constantly take shelter, but sometimes they do just for the heck of it. It gives things at times almost a fairy element. Sheep among trees - sound the retreat! They've been a bit of a handful lately; getting to graze on an almost daily basis means they've been getting rather spoiled, and prone to ignoring shepherds whenever they can. They remain most manageable when there's two or more shepherds on duty.
And with June's weather there have been glorious signs of plant life and pretty little flowers. Some of the grasses are already going to seed, as seen here, with the red seeds among the little yellow flowers.
And here, with small purple flowers and white daisies - one of the sheep delights in eating these daisies, so seeing a ewe wander by with a daisy dangling from her mouth is not at all an uncommon sight.
A closeup of the daisy, because of the rather striking pattern its folded-back protective leaves have.
Even smaller purple flowers among the clover.
And spring irises, which begin opening in April or sometimes sooner and last until summer gets too hot for them, backed by more of those tiny yellow flowers.
It has been a very eye-catching June, and we'll be sorry to see it go!
The sheep have been fattening themselves upon the summer grass with great glee, as everyone can clearly spot. The wool is gradually shedding, so that by now some of our sheep are practically nude. A fair amount though by no means all of the shed wool has been collected; at some point, likely when we go to deworm them, we'll see about rooing the ones who haven't shed.
One of the garden trees died completely and we've planted a replacement; however, dead though it might be, it looks very picturesque among the daisies and tall clovers and with bits of grass and moss about.
And surprise! We have a brand new ewe lamb as of this morning, born to one of last year's ewe hoggets, fawn in colour. A first lamb for her, obviously - and coal-black all over. We're fairly sure from when Hercules came back from Oregon (June 22nd) combine with today's birthdate that she's one of his. There's an outside chance it could be Hercules' oldest (and largest) son, ram lamb #1, but considering we saw him sniffing for fertile ewes when he returned and his determination for dominance...
The grass has indeed gotten high. Can anyone count the sheep?
Maybe this makes it easier.
Or this...
Or how about this?
Nibs is confident that we have enough sheep. He's also confident that that length of baling twine isn't going anywhere without him having something to say about it. Don't you agree?
The barn cats continue to receive their refresher training in more polite people manners. The training comes with some perks, such as hotel accommodations. Shh, they're going over their notes!
