Inspired, by this blog, I’m officially on my way to being Felicity Kendall / Barbara Good from “The Good Life”. I’ve got half a carrier bag of stray sheep’s wool! The sheep in the next field seemed really cross that R & I were stealing the fleecey bits their neighbours had left behind on thorns, brambles and fences. They were Baa-ing really loudly and pacing backwards and forwards indignantly. I tried explaining respectfully “look, you and your friends don’t need this wool any more and us humans can make things out of it to keep us warm.” No effect. Still more staring and aggressive baa-ing. I tried the diplomatic route, “What lovely wool! Thank you very much”. More narky baa-ing. R started crying, so we packed up (not before “mummy get’s this big fluffy bit over here” though). No. The sheep didn’t win actually. We were going in for our lunch anyway, OK??

Now I’m waiting to get a reply to the email I sent to the hand-spinning lady. Will she think my half carrier bag bounty ridiculous? You’d probably get more from shearing one sheep’s ear. I’d asked if she would consider washing it but now am unsure whether that traditionally includes picking out bits of droppings, twigs, leaves and straw? More to the point, will there be any wool left when these things are removed? Just realised I should have photographed the wool to include here. I’ll take one tomorrow after it’s dried in the shed. I’ll probably go in tomorrow to see several families of field mice snoozing merrily in it!

In the meantime, here’s some pics I took at my brother in laws yesterday. A v sleepy and traditional Herefordshire hamlet (said in Henry Higgins sort of voice).

On our way home it got really dark, foggy and spooky. Thank goodness for the cat’s eyes guiding us…

We thought we might re-encounter some of the strange looking beasts on the moors near offas dyke, that stood in front of the car not budging, on our way there. This isn’t my photo (please see here for credit) but you can see more in it than mine.

Not the best shooting conditions, black, foggy night, moorland, drizzle, taking a pic of black cattle out a moving car window, not wanting to freak huge beasts out by using the flash. Still, I like to think it’s atmospheric and you can make out the head and horns!