a lull in proceedings

after all that excitement with incoming delights it's now time to concentrate on a bit of farm life

sheep shearing begins on Monday

and for the ill-informed who inevitably protest that this is a cruel activity

let me say in advance

that humans have been selectively breeding sheep for over 4000 years

so that they grow lovely soft stuff

that can be spun and knitted and woven and felted

and if you don't shear them, they die often gruesome deaths as fly maggots hatch in the wool and sit down to an endless dinner on living flesh

or

the sheep gets wet [in the rain] and then just gets too heavy to get up

and

fly maggots hatch in the wool etc etc

this one below was just very, very lucky