Autumn -Thematic Photography

Carmi sets us an autumn theme each year and I can never attempt to match the colour of the trees in a North American fall.

The next day the leaves have gone but elsewhere there is fun a guy can have.

Fungi - not ice cream

A day later,  colours are obscured and sheep appear like ghosts out of the fog.

Although this is a post to link to Thematic-photographic-386-autumn later this week it will also link to Good-fences-136.

By hook or by crook - Sepia Saturday

They tell me shepherds once used a crook in their work I wonder how many shepherds there were about when the megaliths were put up at Almendres Cromlech in Portugal. 

Inverted shepherd's crook

Apparently the crook was a common motif on the local megaliths.

A shepherd in Croatia needed a dog and a crook to keep his flock under control in the snow near Jagodnjak.

Croatian shepherd with his flock

The Hungarian village of Ricse commemorated its shepherd in a statute but he just carried a stout staff and apparently had no dog.

Shepherd Well

In the early 1950s I had close encounters with sheep - well, with their fleeces at least. As a school holiday job with the Stamford firm of Central Wool Growers, initially at their Wothorpe plant and later in the new premises on Uffington Road.

Fleeces delivered from farms were examined and graded for quality by a Yorkshire man named Ben Waterhouse. He threw them into bins according to their breeds. Our gang of school boys then had to put them into bales and stamp them down with our feet.

Back then, my hands were the softest they have ever been due the effect of the lanolin in the wool.

A less pleasant job however was the baling of dags - the wool clippings from around a sheep's back end. My trouser legs had a very interesting smell - lanolin, and a ranker aroma which would keep any dogs away.

Now the nearest I get to sheep and lambs are those in a local field.

A Spring 'creche'

Seems a shame that soon it will be time for mint sauce.

Perhaps their mum will provide some protection - 

before it's time for lamb chops.

Don't feel sheepish, please visit Sepia-Saturday-329. for alternative views - any black sheep out there I wonder?

Attributions:

• Inverted shepherd's crook; 26 May 2006 by Xyz11234, Public Domain
• Croation shepherd, 3 May 2009 by Ljabornir Damjanovic, CC BY-SA 3.0
• Shepherd Well, Ricse; 4 August 2007 by Ramirez Hun, Public Domain

Lunar New Year - Sheep; Sunday Stamps II

Canada has issued two stamps to mark the Lunar New Year.

Canada - Year of the Ram 2015

The domestic stamp shows three rams welcoming spring. Hopefully someone else will be able to show us that.

The Merino is a famous breed of sheep and it appears on stamps from - 

South Africa - 1972

and

Australia - Poll Dorset and the Merino 1989

These were two of a set of four issued to commemorate the World Sheep and Wool Congress held in Tasmania that year.

I have had some close encounters with sheep - well their fleeces at least. In school summer holidays I had the pleasure of baling fleeces at a Central Wool Growers plant where fleeces were graded according to the quality of their wool. My hand have never ever been as soft since then - thanks to all the lanolin they contained.

I'll draw a line under the effect of baling dags - the clippings from sheep's behinds.

There have been some articles in the UK newspapers this week on whether this should be the year of the sheep, or as they are too meek, the year of the goat instead. I don't think I would argue with a Merino ram.

But just in case here's a - 

Goat from Norway - 1981

There's no need to be sheepish when you can see more at Sunday-stamps-ii-10. and where I've just discovered both the Canadian stamps and more about goats.

Rural Fences

Living in a rural village means that there are many good fences around, but also some that have seen better days.

Woodside fence

Timber fence replaced by wire with a strand of barbed wire on top.

The riding school horses need something less substantial.

Posts with a single canvas strand between.

If it's perspective that you seek a driveway deceives your eyes.

Fields for sheep carrying next year's lambs

They cannot escape through timber or wire.

Penned in

This has been a Good Fences post.

Threesies - Thematic Photography

I've fooled about a bit today to meet Carmi's 'Threeies' theme. This Tuesday  is when our recycling  bins are emptied and there at the bottom of our drive were the empty containers for everyone to see.

Recycling containers

Blue box for glass; white bag (on side) for newspapers and on the right the larger white bag for cans, plastic and cardboard emptied every two weeks if you remember to put them out by the kerbside early in the morning.

The local fields are full of pregnant ewes; it will soon be lambing time. I see them every day when I walk to fetch a paper.

 A threesome in waiting

I have to pass the village playing field on the way and it has a colourful threesome on show.

Playground threesome

When my wife arrived home from the shops I found a threesome threesie among her goods. It didn't photograph very well.

Three threesies

If you could read the labels, reading left to right for each column, there is a threesie for £10 and two threesies for £6.

I decided I'd better be more serious for my next two threesies and return to Tresco on the Isles of Scilly.

Tresco Abbey Gardens
Statue of the Dorien-Smith children, symbolic of the freedom of the islands

This permits me to finish with a threesie of our own.

Adrian, Andrew & Rachel, Cromwell's Castle, Tresco 2008

So you have eight threesies to pick from here and I'm sure you'll find lots of others via Thematic-photographic-279.