Esther

Recently, I said goodbye to Esther. It was unexpected, but I can comfort myself by knowing she had a wonderful, carefree life with her sheep friends for eight years.

She was born in 2018, a young Texel/Mule. She was so tiny, and ended up coming down with E. coli which left her very weak. But she never gave up on her milk, and she lived in our kitchen for the first two weeks of her life until she was fit enough to live in the lambing shed.

Once she was over her E. coli troubles, she didn't look behind her (except in this photo, I suppose!).

She stayed small, but she was full of courage.

She loved a cuddle session too.

And relaxing was a favourite.

Here she is with Flora, a lamb born at the same time. Quite the size difference!

When baby Susan arrived, it was Esther I trusted to meet her first.

Heather, another Texel/Mule. She was bigger too, of course.

My favourite photo of Esther, I think - she's so cute!

After her first haircut.

Playing with Tilly in the yard.

A beautiful lady.

Blowing her audition to be one of Santa's helpers.

All of that wool made for good insulation.

Clipped again.

Her wool was amazing - it grew so fast and was so fun to bury your hands in.

One of Esther's favourite places to chew her cud was up on this wall.

The smallest and the biggest, Titch.

She was always greedy for treats.

"More wool than woman", a nonsense phrase I think of when I see this photo!

So sweet, so adorably round.

Chillin'.

As impressive as her fleece was, she was happy to be rid of it come the summer. She knew exactly where to get a good scratch the moment her fleece was clipped.

The last photo I took of Esther, not too long ago. 

Esther

9th April 2018 — 7th July 2026

 Goodbye, my woolly little round friend.

Lambing 2026

Hello and welcome to my very long post about lambing - every year I fall behind with posting on here because lambing keeps me so busy, so to start with getting back on track again I'm going to condense everything that happened in the shed into the one post. There will be lambs!

This lamb was an early one. I fell instantly in love with his permanently startled expression.

His proud mummy.

Lots of hungry expectant mums.

Eunice.

Susan helping out with the pet lambs...

...by stealing their food.

The pet pen was filling up...

Clover.

Poppy being cute. She loves this time of year - so many lambs to lick!

Ida getting big.

Poppy and the pet lambs. This year's new trick was standing on this bale and licking all the milk jugs as I tried to mix milk.

A very fresh baby.

Erin. She was a triplet, born on 10th March.

Erin under the lamp.

Erin with wee Rory, who ended up being adopted by a ewe.

A couple of brown boys.

Ruby's brother (more from her later...)

Fly keeping an eye on things.

Once the pet lambs are old enough to do without the heat lamp, they move to a pen next to the ewes and lambs.

Erin.

Licks from mum.

Ida.

Ivan, the oldest of the pet lambs.

Ida's so chunky.

Ruby and her brother came down with nasty infections at a day old. After a trip to the vet with them both, her brother went back to their mum and I took on Ruby.

Plenty of comings and goings under the heat lamp.

Sleepy Peg. Her mum didn't have quite enough milk for two lambs so I took Peg on. I called her Peg because she kept rearing up like a Pegasus when I went to feed her, she was so excited for her milk! 

It was Billy's first birthday on the 23rd of March. After lunch, I went out to check on the ewes on my own while Dad did the washing up. I came upon a Texel two-year-old with a swollen head sticking out. I got her caught and onto her side. The lamb was massive and it took a huge effort for me to get just one foot brought up - the back of my hand, already bruised from other tricky lambings, was even more painful after this. I managed to get the lamb out eventually, thankfully he was alive and mum was fine too. She wasn't interested in him, though, and with the swelling he was unable to suck on an elder himself. He took to the bottle well. Here he is at a day old. I called him Jim.

Poppy helped with the lambing a lot. Here she is helping by playing with a piece of wood.

Gertie continued her lifelong tradition of having two lambs and giving me one. Meet Ilsa.

Erin and Poppy.

Peg, wide awake this time.

This is Prue, a young Mule lamb born during a multi-ewe mess.

Jim doing well.

Silly Ida.

Those pens filling up.

Ethel had twin boys. I ended up with one of them.

Susan loves lambing time - I promise!

The heat lamp is very popular.

Fly.

Ida on the loose.

Annie, one of a set of twins born on the 29th of March. I just think that she's the cutest little lamb.

Jim.

Prue.

Lily didn't have twins this year, so I didn't end up with one of them gifted to me.

This is her tip lamb.

Ilsa and Ruby.

A silly boy.

Teenie, out of an older ewe who didn't have enough milk for two lambs.

Scratches.

Teenie.

Clover had triplets on the 24th of March. The two tips were solid black, but the smallest, a ewe, had lovely face markings. I called her Ingrid.

On the day I'm publishing this, the final straggler had her lamb. So that's lambing done for 2026! Now we get to enjoy these little ones over the summer.