Firstly some customer service information ! I have been asked how people donate on this blog . For those of you who receive email reminders of my latest effort , you will be taken straight to my blog page. If you wish to donate you have to go onto my site page by entering caminoromero.com into whichever search engine you use and you will be taken to the site page …..
This is what will pop up – although for you I think the button says “donate“ – click on that button and you can then make a donation. Thank you in advance for that 🙏🏼
Now back to the business of seeking …. and actually finding ! What? I hear you say …don’t you remember, I promised you photos of lambs, and other such things. Well you’ll have to be patient and see what I found!
Our walk this morning started with our usual friends..
Millie and I had intended to have a long walk but we walked part way with these two and their Mums – Helen and Claire. As we walked along a bridleway we bemoaned the fact that too many dog owners fail to pick up their dog’s mess, leaving it for some poor soul to step in. It really isn’t good enough but you can see why it happens. Nowadays we see people running with their dogs ( or should I say they are running and expecting their dogs to keep up with them), people walking the dogs but with earphones in and either deep in conversation with a mystery person on the other end of the phone, or listening to who knows what. Who cares, the one thing they are not doing is paying attention to their dog and it’s toilet habits!! Rant over …. I should say Millie wears a bell so that I know where she is at all times, and if I can’t hear the bell it is likely that she has stopped either to sniff or eat something or answer a call of nature. It was whilst we were ranting this morning I noticed Millie doing exactly that , so bag at the ready ….but then realised whilst she was in the process of this, her front legs were frantically digging in a molehill. Whoever knew dogs could multi task?
Now this was tricky, because completely hidden by Alfie’s Mum was Kath Kidson – not the real one of course, she’s actually called Carol but she carries dog biscuits in a Kath Kidson bag hence how she got her name. She happens to be one of Millie’s favourite people ( I wonder why?..🙄🙄🙄) – but this morning she had both her dogs on a lead which confused Millie , who eventually reluctantly followed me after clearly toying with the idea of following her friends!
We followed the bridle path on our chosen route and as we passed this wall I felt it important to demonstrate that dry stone walls are not all picture perfect round here. Dry stone walling is a skill and I suspect it is a costly ( in both time and money) business to keep walls in perfect shape – and farming financial constraints don’t allow for consideration of aesthetical appearance alone.
Round the corner we found a field full of a flock of sheep …..but not a single lamb to my disappointment. However these ewes are likely to lamb soon…….how do I know this? They have blue bottoms …. I can hear you musing as to how I jumped to that conclusion . Let me tell you , in the world of the ewe and the ram , there is no romance . Sorry to disappoint. The ram is either dressed in a harness with a block of dye inserted between his two front legs, or the farmer splurges a blob of waterproof paint/dye in the same place. Then he and several others like him are released into a flock of ewes. This tends to be October time depending on when the farmer wants the ewes to lamb. Also as the days become shorter the ewes go into season ( every 16 or 17 days poor things!) The rams have a field day ( probably even week or month or more who knows) but with his dye in place , the farmer knows which ewes have been served . Some farmers who have many sheep will change the ram’s dye colour to allow them an idea of which ewes will lamb first! These ewes had clearly been privy to a ram with blue dye!
Enough of the biology lesson ….onwards and upwards…….
Where on earth does she fit in to a blog documenting country walks not far from Barnsley? Well let me tell you , todays walk took me past a kennels who used to breed German Shepherds…. and, you may have guessed it, one of their puppies went to Claudia Schiffer…. a lady with excellent taste ! ( By the way I’ve no idea if she actually came to the kennels …. but a puppy went to her)
After that digression , I found what I was looking for ……just for you!
I have to say, nothing quite like lambs responding to their mother’s call epitomises the bond between a mother and her offspring . These two were right beside their Mum, but there were two others completely alone. Suddenly we heard the low pitched bleating sound of a ewe, their Mum , as she walked up the field to them . They immediately got up and bounded towards her pummelling headlong one either side onto her teats . As they started to suckle their little tails were going ninety to the dozen …..a wonderfully heartwarming site to see!
Then who should we see a few fields on …….
It is so lovely having access to such lovely countryside …a pity some others donot appreciate it as much……
Whatever happened to “take your rubbish home with you” How have we allowed the next and subsequent generations to become so uncaring of their surroundings. People throw Macdonalds ( other take away venues are available) wrappers, boxes, cups along with an alarming number of empty alcohol cans . I’ve no idea what the answer is but it is very upsetting to see!
At this point, the sun came out and as it was so lovely , we continued on our planned route ( it had been quite wet and I did consider curtailing the walk but…) Look what we would have missed had we not continued….
Then we were back onto the Trans Pennine Trail and home, but not before meeting Millie’s namesake, a black Labrador owned by a remarkable lady. I’ve no idea how old she is but would guess at late seventies even eighty, yet she walks her Millie miles every day – she to,d me she was out with her for a long walk at 03.45 this morning 🙄🙄
Wow, 9 km ! Good exercise for both of us . but not enough for me , I’m off to Pilates later …so I’ll leave you with this ….
Until tomorrow Dear Reader …thank you for reading this! 😘😘
Camino Romero 