Week Twenty Four
The inclement weather all week has seen a variety pack of different climatic conditions, the Gods have sent us rain, blizzards, snow, hail and I’m sure just for good luck, a miniscule amount of sun, but mainly it has been rainy and extremely wet. I stood and stared into the eyes of a sheep the other day, and it was sad, truly miserable, but who wouldn’t be in such dampness. Because of the winter there is still a lack of nutritious green grass to eat, so unfortunately there are lots of hungry sheep. 
Farmers have to feed them with strange round cakes and hay; this of course is all very expensive. Whilst walking you come across groups of sheep chomping in circles on large cakes at different intervals along the route, I like to think they are having cake parties. It is one of the few times you can get close to them, as there interest lies in eating rather than running away.
There has been quite a lot of flooding with all the rain, the cold dark water rises so quickly that at times sheep get caught out and carried away. One lamb’s fate was to succumb to this, drowning in the ordeal. The water is incredibly cold and most animals will die straight away on contact. In the photograph where the water is the roughest and the most turbulent, it is actually ….errr….the road. Iabandoned my car at that point and decided on foot would be the safest route. 
It never occurred to me that the beginning of spring would be the greatest time for the fatality of sheep. It seems that even though they have managed to get through an extreme winter, some sheep, just have not got the strength to carry on. Crows at this point seem to be at their happiest; they target weak ewes and will even peck at injuries to weaken a sheep further. The crow (corvus corone), dark in its presence and dark in its nature, watch coldly from the side, they often work in pairs, they do not like to give up and will persistently target their chosen prey. 
A farmer can tell what animal has killed a sheep by their injury, apparently Badgers go for the stomach, foxes for the anus and crows for the eyes. Crows, like other predators are rather partial to lambs. A group of crows is aptly named a “murder”. A couple of years ago a sheep lost both of its eyes, pecked by the hungry crows, it actually survived and would follow blindly the sound of its bleating lamb wherever it went. At every season, nature likes to remind us there is a bitter twist to its inordinate beauty. 
One favourite thing this week is the ‘spaghetti’ grass everywhere, I’m not entirely sure what its called but it just looks like cooked spaghetti that has been thrown ubiquitously….love it! Although I have been working really hard in the studio I have been ill the last few days, weak to the very bone and snuffly, and annoyingly this has got in the way of walking, working and well generally everything. This week’s blog therefore is going to be rather shorter than normal! So sorry folks this is all I can muster this week. 
Happy Easter to all and especially thanks to my Mum for sending me a glorious box of goodies, which included a pair of splendid red shoes. Week twenty four….kinda done!