More sheep pictures. Still at £92 raised.

I went out on my scooter taking pictures up and down the lane. Lots of pictures of sheep, but other hedgerow goings on as well. The daffodils are just about finished but the bluebells are starting to come though, and there's tiny little wild violets if you look closely, and various tree blossoms, and all sorts of other things if you know where - and how to look for them. Just as was about finished and turning up the drive to come back, I saw a ewe and her twins near the top of the field. Normally they're wary and at best stand still looking at me, but this one seemed to want to show off her lambs and actually came towards me. Not only that, she and her twins posed very nicely for me for quite a long time. The light was behind them and lit up the lambs' ears like little pinks flags.

New Van. £92 raised.

Well, I bit the bullet, so to speak, and wiped out my savings account, but I'm very happy. I've got a van. Hooray.

The point of getting rid of my Landrover and having a van instead is so that I can take my scooter out and about with me. I bought a pair of ramps on eBay, which unfortunately, didn't quite work, so they're going back, and I'll get some others that do fit.  And then... I'm out and about with Eeyore the van, and Beep-beep the scooter. Woooo hooooo.

Meanwhile, back in 'Going to Las Vegas Land', the passport people sent my application back because I was at the wrong angle in my photo. So I've had to do another one, and it's not easy doing self-portraits. I used a plastic heron to lock the focus, then put the camera on a 10 second timer delay and hoped for the best. After several failures - sunlight too strong, not properly in frame, etc, I came up with this one: 

Do you think they'd notice? 

First PayPal payment. £60 raised.

I'm quite excited that I've had my first PayPal payment for £20. I did know that the PayPal button worked, but it's hard to absolutely believe in it until you've had a transaction. Anyway, busy day, so I'd better not go on too much.

Fundraising and HRT. £40 raised

Little 48's dramatic rescue was the not only thing that happened in this last week. You may remember me blathering on about HRT in a previous post, and I'm sure you're desperate to know whether it has done any good yet. And the answer is yeah, but no, but yeah, kinda like sort of. Or somewhat. The hot flushes haven't stopped yet, they're less frequent during the day but I'm sill waking up in the night, and particularly the early morning, overheated and sweating - Menopausal Meltdown is what it should be called. That's been two weeks now so either I'm being impatient or I need a stronger dose. It's a little bit frustrating because I was anticipating feeling very much different - in a good way, though on balance, the opposite is probably true. 

Another thing that happened was the arrival of my postcards. This helps me to ask for sponsorship, not something I find easy, but when you have a 'thing' to thrust at people it's one way of breaking into the conversation mode. And so far have raised me £40 in sponsorhip. - £20 in cash, £10 in cheques and £10 in pledges. So from now on, I'll put the running total in the title of the blog.

And finally, the passport service rejected my photo, because they said my head is tilted. So I'm going to have to set up another self portrait but it'll have to wait because I've got way too much hair. 

Number 48 is still alive

Well, it's spring in Wales, and that can only mean two things: daffodils and lambs, both of which are great subjects for photography. Not that I haven't photographed both of these last year and the one before that etc., but now that I have the new camera, I can get far closer to the sheep and the flowers which makes for different looking images to those I did before.

Here's some daffodils.

I've got some great magnolia shots as well (another often revisited subject). Later though....

Because, this weekends really good news is that number 48 is alive and well, albeit limping rather a lot.

2 weekends ago I was out taking pictures of the sheep - they live in a field just opposite my house and the farmer is bringing new born lambs up most days at this time of year - and I spotted a lamb that was curled up, all by itself, very close to the gate. So close, I had to zoom out to get it all in the frame. At first it looked almost dead but was breathing away, so I left it be, thinking its mother would be back at some point.

Later that day I went out again, expecting to see the lamb gone, but no, she was still sleeping soundly. So, as this clip will show, I climbed into the field, established that, yes, she was very hungry (and lambs have a powerful suck) and carried her over the gate and into the next field where the mother and the lamb's twin were going about their business as if nothing ad happened. I thought she'd just run towards the ewe, there would be a moment of delighted recognition, and then she'd get a good feeding. It was not actually that straightforward and it was really only the intervention of the twin - who was and still is, much larger - that re-united them all. At the point where I left them to it, the ewe had allowed the lamb a few quick gulps of milk, then moved away, further down the field, where I couldn't see them.

I've been going back over there almost every day since, looking for the 48 family and the stray lamb in particular, but although I'd see the ewe ad the chunkier twin, I hadn't seen the little one I rescued. I was getting worried that the ewe had rejected her after all and she been abandoned again. Until yesterday that was, when I spotted her, along with the twin, and although she was still a lot smaller than the twin, and had a developed a limp, she looked perfectly happy. In fact she was even joining in with an adventure with the 36s. The two no. 36 lambs are the ringleaders, wherever there's trouble to be had, the 36s are there. Unlike some of the twins that have incredibly similiar features, the there's on 36 with a very fluffy coat and the other is a more compact. curly coat. And it's the fluffier of the two that's the actual ringleader.

Spotted at last - the 48 twins. Note the distance in size.
The 36s were a bit cheeky right from the start.
The fluffy 36 is by far the livelier of the two, and when bored will pester the ewe, other lambs, mounds of mud, sticks etc.
Should have called ths one Tigger.
Using double-team tactics to 'persuade' the ewe to stand up.
I'm the King of the Castle
The 36s leading the 48s on an adventure
The grass is always greener on the ... well, on the place where there isn't any grass
Little 48, might have a limp but that doesn't stop her climbing the bank to get a better look at me
Peek a boo