Menolgent; Indulging In Indulgence

...if that title reads like 'overindulgence', that wouldn't be entirely wrong. There was a touch of overwhelm due to the joy of my visit South of the Border... You all have had intimations and glimpses in earlier posts. Here begins the tale proper of my time with Nobby and his peeps, Stephen and Drusilla. It's going to be more than one post - and you ARE going to get a lot of sheep. Take that as fair warning.

Having wound my way through the narrow Lakeland byways to the wonderful home where Nobby now resides, I was welcomed immediately with a cuppa and biccies on the verandah. You saw the photos from that in Tuesday's post. Nobby did his familiar hop, skip and run around the yard before making a beeline for my lap. That he was so quick to recognise me and seek that closeness brought a lump to my throat, as you may imagine. The 87 kissies made sure I felt truly loved by him. (You can see that shot at the bottom of his last post, if you haven't seen it already.) He's a generous pupster, though, and made sure that S and D got their share of cuddles, too. 

The Grey was parked in the drive beside the garage, and I opted to continue sleeping in the van, but shared meals and lots of conversation time with the peeps, as well as a good amount of play time with Nobby. The yard around the house is extensive, including an orchard area, a water-feature area, the main garden lawn, and the bit that I termed the lower paddock, giving S and D the giggles, as they'd not thought of it that way. It's enormous, though, and would make good agistment for a small pony. As it is, it is a perfect park to play with pooches!

I felt most honoured when Stephen prepared our first meal together, taking into account my dietary requirements: cauliflower 'steaks' with a cashew masala sauce. He's an excellent cook - his sourdough bread is scrumptious, and his garlic-free hummus was like butter. He even prepared a little vase of Sweetpeas for me to decorate the van whilst staying there!

Spoiled, or what? I did not lack for stimulating discussions, some good laughs, proper 'getting to know you' moments, and such open-heartedness. We acknowledged that Gail had known what she was doing when seeking a place for Nobby to go - and that we felt comfortable building on the connection. I will add that Dru is equally good a cook, and her sweet potato and pumpkin curry the next day was every bit as delicious. On Friday, I added one of my paneer dishes to the table... safe to say, we all enjoyed our meal times.

Now, on the first evening (Tuesday), I was advised that there was a special day ahead... I was to accompany them as their guest to the Westmorland County Show. This proved to be one of the best days I've had in a long time! SHEEP!!! I love cattle and other animals, but sheep... Long-termers, here may recall that on my mother's side, we have a long line of shepherds (five generations that we account for, and likely more). My mother never lost her love of sheep, and more specifically, wool, being one who could wield the shears, take the fleece and work it all the way through to finished garment - and win ribbons and rosettes at any shows she submitted to. The spinning lark never quite grabbed me, though I greatly admire the skill, and I do have an appreciation for fine yarns, as well as the wool on the backs of the animals that produce it.

I will be sharing some of my sheep shots over the next few Nature Friday posts. The ones you see above are Lonk, a large hill breed (read more about them), with excellent wool quality. 

Dru had expressed an interest and stayed with me the two and a half hours I spent going around all the pens, digging my fingers into fleeces and checking out formation... After her several years of attendance, it was only now, as I told her what was going on, that she realised how the judging was being run, including the 'feeling of the tups'... and no sooner had I explained this than we spotted a judge working his way under the tail of a Leicester Ram! She had also not known how the wool fibre was assessed, so there was a quick lesson from yours truly about staple length, crimp, colour and so forth. 

If I'm brutally honest, I hadn't realised how much of this information I had retained all these years!!! I recall some of it from my grandfather, a lot from my mother, a good bit from attending a fleecing course in Australia, as well as what I had to learn when I worked for the East of Scotland College of Agriculture. It has been an age since I last attended a country show, and I was having the time of my life. 

But let me leave this here for now and pick it up again next Thursday, with a little bit more from the show and some more Nobby shots. As mentioned, there will be sheep features for NF, sharing breed info and, hopefully, bring an appreciation you may not have realised you had! That might be followed by some cattle cuties. Jus' sayin'... Let's finish with an action shot of some Ryelands being judged.