Bowood 2014 #13: Twinkle and Sparkles

I realised that although I have mentioned Twinkle and Sparkles a couple of time, I haven't blipped them, and this was my last opportunity. They were born in 2011 in the Shetland Islands and came to Tractor Ted's Little Farm at Bowood via the Blue Cross, as a last minute replacement for two older Shetland ponies, Buttons and Smarties, that had contracted laminitis and couldn't be moved.

Unfortunately, Twinkle and Sparkles (named by children who were Bowood visitors) weren't happy in their enclosure, finding all the attention from the visiting children too stressful, and they had been moved out to a paddock prior to leaving Bowood. Buttons and Smarties had recovered from laminitis and were due to take their place, and Twinkle and Sparkles were going to new owners who had offered them a permanent home, the swap being scheduled to take place the following Thursday. I only learned on this day where the paddock was, and that it was reachable to the public, so at the end of my visit I walked over there to see them for the last time and found them. They were very friendly and came up to the gate to graze and be petted.

I began my visit at Tractor Ted's and looked at all the animals and the young chicks in the incubators. One of the eggs waiting to be hatched was an abandoned goose egg from a neighbouring farm, and until some time after it hatches out it wouldn't be known what kind of goose it would be. I walked down to the Lake and saw diving grebes and nesting Canada geese from Lake Field, a greater spotted woodpecker on the ground on the way back, and a hare.

L.
20.5.2014 (1352 hr)

Blip #1265
Consecutive Blip #127
Day #1504

Lenses: Pentax 35mm f2.8, Pentax 17-70mm, Pentax 55-300mm x 1.4

Bowood 2014 series
Bowood series
Bowood 2013-2014 (Flickr collection)(Work in progress)

Lozarhythm Of The Day:
Twinkle - Golden Lights (1965)
"Twinkle owed her rapid entry into the recording studio at the age of 16 to her then-boyfriend, Dec Cluskey, of the popular vocal group The Bachelors, who was introduced to her by her sister, a music journalist, and who passed on to his manager a demo that Twinkle's father played to him. Her song Terry was a teenage tragedy song about the death of a boyfriend in a motorcycle crash. Big Jim Sullivan and Jimmy Page were among the high profile session musicians who played on the recording, which conjured up a dark mood with its doleful backing vocals, spooky organ, 12-string guitar and slow, emphatic rhythm arranged by Phil Coulter. The theme was of a common type for the era, it bore some similarities to the Shangri-Las' slightly later "Leader of the Pack" (1964), but the record caused a furore, accusations of bad taste leading to a ban from the BBC.
"The follow-up, Golden Lights, was also written by Twinkle, with a B-side again by producer Tommy Scott. By then Cluskey was her ex-boyfriend: Twinkle dated Peter Noone in 1965. The lyrics express disillusionment with the pop business: her EP track A Lonely Singing Doll, the English-language version of France Gall's 1965 winning Eurovision Song Contest song for Luxembourg, Poupée de cire, poupée de sol, originally written by Serge Gainsbourg, returned to a theme similar to Golden Lights." - Wikipedia
The Smiths covered Golden Lights for a B-side, at Morrissey's insistence. For Johnny Marr it was the last straw and he left the band shortly afterwards, occasioning the end of the band. Morrissey made some lyrical alterations from the original.

One year ago: Bowood 2013 #9