Inclement weather

Good old Tarset, she is throwing her usual weather at us - rain! Actually there is quite a variety in the forecast at the moment, there is rain, showers, heavy showers, sunshine and showers, big showers, little showers, very very wet showers, persistent rain interspersed with showers. You name it, so long as it involves precipitation, we seem to be getting it.

 

The foal above seemed to think if it stood in front of it's mother it may get some shelter from one of those unrelenting showers!

Unfortunately the weather is causing problems with work. We are now in the shearing season, it has always been preferable to shear sheep when they are dry. Wet, when packed into the wool sheets, can go mouldy or worse and so everyone endeavours to make sure their fleeces are dry when removed from the sheeps back, although it has been known (and is happening at the moment) that wet fleeces get hung up in the sheds to air dry before being wrapped and packed, unfortunately fleeces are quite big and many will take up more room than is available so it isn't the ideal solution.

There has been the odd miracle, many days the weather improves in the evenings and on one such evening Shep was ecstatic to be able to get some sheep clipped outside.

 

Clipping outdoors is often a bind. Rain is an obvious problem, sometimes it can be too hot (hard to believe at the moment) with the shearer struggling under the heat of the sun, there is also the issue of wind which can blow the fleece around as you are attempting to remove it. The evening these sheep were done the conditions were almost perfect except for the midges that is. Tiny little biting flies which can send you demented (some of us may already be demented!) a good anti-midge spray can save the sanity if put on in plenty of time before the blighters get a chance to draw blood and cause the itch.

 

These sheep were shorn in the field which they graze, my car is just out of view on the roadside and the clipping machine is attached to the car battery enabling me to clip them electrically rather than with hand shears. The set up is not a good one, in fact it is a pretty lousy set up. One big pen to hold the sheep and myself.

I suppose I could have taken my clipping race along but instead I was fortunate and the other half offered his assistance. The last thing you want when shearing is a mob of sheep running over the top of you which is more than possible in a set up such as this. Fortunately the other half caught a sheep whilst I guarded the machine and hand piece, then whilst I clipped one he stood guard to prevent the rest of the 'flock' from charging around the pen.

 

The clipped ones end up mixed with the none clipped sheep, slowly whittling them down until they are all shorn and the job is done. It was a huge relief to get these sheep shorn and out of the way, with the weather the way it has been lately the thought of clipping outdoors can give you a headache, many a time you can get half way through and the weather breaks, sheep, shearer and gear get wet. We were lucky and they ran away naked without a drop of rain hindering us in the process.

 

Just as well the car was needed to power the clipping machine as it also came in handy for shifting the wool sheet and transporting it to a shed for storage.

Hard to believe from seeing those shots that it rains a lot, but it does - honest! In fact I was foolish enough to look up the BBC long range weather forecast and have been in denial ever since, it seems to suggest there is unlikely to be much change in the near future - surely not? That must be a misprint - it can't keep raining, the sky will dry out eventually, will it not? It's summer now - officially so, that means sunshine and things doesn't it?

 

I attempt to cheer myself up by finding beauty in the wetness, such as this sorrel, or the rhododendron flower below

 

I have to say that to date the following two photos are my favourites. Red clover looking like it is bejewelled with diamonds. I imagine fancy restaurants that serve up sugared fruits (I've seen them on the telly, don't do the fancy restaurant thing meself - prefer a full belly than a fancy looking little plate of something). I could imagine this clover flower adorning a finely sliced lamb steak which is finished off with a dribbling of some sort of red sauce. Mind I aint too sure what it would taste like but mebbes you're not meant to eat these ornate dressings. I do know tho' that if you pull the petals of clover and suck the nectar it is lovely and sweet so mebbes they could be eaten - who knows? but at least my imagination keeps me amused during some of those soggiest moments which the British weather throws at us