First Persian lambs are born

 17.9.2022

 

The weather is still awful.  It just keeps on and on raining.  Grey skies are not usually such a feature of life here and we are just longing for warmer times. Nature is not to be put off and spring is here, ready or not. The leaves on the oak trees are uncurling and the fruit trees are covered with blossom. We even have the first lambs. 

 

The old coloured ewe has twins, a boy and a girl.  The boy is white with black splodges and has hair like dad, but the girl has a tightly curled black coat that reminds me very much of the Persian lamb collars that great aunts had on their coats years ago!  The ewe is not a good mother so I have her and her lambs shut in the yards so that I can shut her in a shed each night. This seems to be working and the lambs are thriving.

 

We are lucky our vegie beds are raised because the grass around them is like a swamp. We have eaten all the yellow factual shaped cauliflowers and are now into the broccoli. The garlic is streaking ahead and the first set of snow peas are beginning to climb. Josh has seen brush tailed possums around the ruins but so far, they have left the vegie garden alone.

 

 The kangaroos are getting bolder since our dog has died. On occasions they are right up to my bedroom window when I wake up. The feral deer are encroaching too.  It is precarious being a plant round here at night!  The goats are in the shed most days as they hate rain.  This means we often add straw to the shed floor which is rising rapidly We will definitely need to get it cleaned out if the rain finally stops. It looks like the compost we harvest will keep every- one’s soli nourished for a few years to come.

 

Our dear friend, Benie, is seriously ill in hospital and we have a funeral for another friend from our old trail riding days next week. The Queen’s death dominated our TV and media screens most of last week. I think most people I know are sorry to lose her, but are not keen to go on attached to the UK through the monarchy.  The only problem is that it is hard to trust politicians too. 

We are following the coroner’s inquiry about the shooting of a boy in Yuendumu where we lived for several years. We found the way Aboriginal people were treated was extremely racist and evidence to show awful attitudes were common amongst the police are mounting. We all hope for change.