I've just been over to the field where all my keeper lambs are living at the moment (we have one to add later.. Freckle) ... they all ate their nuts in freshly washed troughs, with Tottie coming for her's from my hand and Melody wondering why she was getting such preferential treatment! I sat down on the log pile while they finished, a good place to perch when the dew is heavy and you want to keep a dry bum.. and was slowly surrounded by all those needing a pat and a stroke, including Jonty.
I have promised him that he will be staying with us (for his delicious coloured wool!) and will not be going either to market or to "Bainbridge"!!! and he is content now that his limp is better to come back for some affection.... this morning his face, chest and front legs were covered in several hundred of those horrible little burrs you get from goose-grass. He must have picked them up while grazing and they get all entangled in the wool, knotting into little clusters which must pull and tug and be really quite uncomfortable.... so I started picking them off before they get embedded.....
One by one... a laborious task which he clearly relished.... I put my hand under his chin for support so I could steer it, looking round and up and under, and it got heavier and heavier as he lulled into the task with a look of bliss...I tried to pick them off without pulling his wool... he just stood there for what mus have been over ten minutes till they were all gone... he looked up, I patted him on the head and called him a "good boy".. and off he went for the day. He's lovely and I have a warm satisfied glow for the rest of the day! I know... whatever turns you on!