Easter Lamb

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Here’s Holly and a little orphan Easter lamb born
at the stables to a winter ewe. A winter ewe is a female sheep not wanted to lamb in the spring – this one got lucky though and some passing ram must have had other ideas.

Holly rears orphan lambs at another farm and keeps them as pets. She bottle feeds and names them, and they come to her call. But despite this we generally eat the male ones once they are big enough. That is the way in the countryside and we get beautiful fresh lamb for around fifteen pence per pound (the slaughter fee). Holly says that this is the right thing to do as someone has to eat the meat and if you have reared and looked after the lamb then you appreciate the meat more. Holly is very sensible and what she says is true, the meat tastes great and we try to eat as much of the animal as possible out of respect.

Don’t worry though this one is safe. A friend of ours is taking it home as a pet to graze in her garden for ever.

I like this picture a lot. Holly looks like the lovely young girl she is, rather than the disenchanted young woman she sometimes pretends to be. Oh well, we all have to find our own way to grow. Anyway this is the real Holly holding an innocent young lamb – just look at them, you can hardly tell which is which.

Pet lambs… only in Wales.

I’m on my way to Wales but for now I’m at the Oxford services car park blogging. I’ve been down to Reading and I’ve stopped for a break. Spring is well on the way down here. The trees are greening up nicely, the rain is warm, and I passed a huge carpet of wild white anemones under the beech woods just down the road.

By the way – I’ll be in Wales for the next couple of days and might not be able to blog. Grrrrr. I’ll do my best to find a passing yacht though.