On an unusually warm spring day, Susan and I went to check on the sheep at Bannon's Land and bring them some water. I took the camera along for a wee photoshoot.
The trick with Susan is to have a ball thrower and a tennis ball.
A few sheep to bookend the photoshoot.
Every lambing season has its characters. This year, one of the standouts was Bonzo - named by my dad. His mum thoroughly rejected him, and then every other ewe we tried to adopt him onto rejected him as well. He didn't help himself by refusing to drink from a bottle, but Dad persisted, and eventually, he started drinking. He put back on the weight he had lost and loved following us around while we fed the other lambs. On this day, Dad was away, so I had to feed the lambs by myself. Bonzo offered his services to assist me.
Hanging around, waiting on his milk.
Dinner time.
Post dinner hanging around.
Susan was helping too.
Peg, Teenie and Jim ready for their dinner.
Prue.
Jim.
Ingrid.
"Where's my milk!?"
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.