Ewe Turn

There was a very early caller this morning, but it wasn't a social visit. I noticed when I went out for the newspaper that a single sheep had passed by, but could see no strays up or down the road. As usual I opened the gates wide and came in to look at the paper. Suddenly there was a sheep charging around my garden trying to find her way back to the flock. My garden is sheep heaven, there is so much grass, and she seemed torn between making the most of it and getting back. Of the nearly 200 lambs it was easy to pick which one was hers.

A phone call brought the farmer, his assistant and a dog. With no fuss at all the ewe was cornered and lifted over the fence. But not before she had trampled the end of my pea row. Still, she kept off the nearby cabbage plants- with her hooves anyway. One of the cabbages will probably grow bigger than the others.

Here she is with her front feet planted in the bed I'm preparing for the onions. The inset shows her lamb, which was some distance away anxiously peering through the fence.