Joseph Farquharson - A Flock of Sheep in a Snowstorm

With the temperature reaching towards 31c and that means about 92f, I thought some would appreciate a picture to cool them down.   This artist created several similar scenes, I suppose living up north he would find this an easy country view to notice!  He created so many such paintings he was known as "Frozen Mutton Farquharson." 

As you give thanks for not putting the gas on, as you reach for yet another ice cream, consider the sheep, and indeed the painter sitting there in two feet deep snow trying to finish his picture! 

Joseph Farquharson: 1846 - 1935. 

Hey Ewe!

With Christmas approaching, you may have missed that, the shopping centre had the usual donkey and sheep gathered for show.  No reindeer this year, they must be appearing elsewhere, yet the kids, and indeed many adults, loved the sight of such animals at close quarters.  
Considering the town is only about two miles from one end to the other and is then surrounded by fields, sadly all too often now filled with developers lining their pockets on homes people here cannot afford, fields which once were filled with sheep and cows as well as the agricultural produce we often see today.  Many remember the cattle market in full swing, this went on into the 60's at least, the High Street lined with men standing alongside their Bull showing him off to the crowds while trying to sell.  Whether sheep were still seen then I am not sure but the older generation would be keen to be reminded of what was once a twice weekly market, animals and all.  
One of the problems Gordon Brown had to deal with early in his premiership was the outbreak of 'Foot & Mouth which struck this area hard as many animals were seen not far from the town.  Vast numbers were destroyed in an effort to curtail the disease and many farmers did not return to animal husbandry for many years.  So it is rare to see live sheep so close to us and we all enjoyed it, the sheep just chewed and ignored us for the most part being used to being shown off, mum ewe of course happily content with her new born lamb, three weeks old.  The farmer told me he did not expect a lamb at this time but the ram, he has one ram for a hundred sheep, lucky boy, the ram somehow got near mum and lo a lamb appeared.  There was another 'lamb' three months old hiding at the back but this was almost full size, they grow quickly.  Mum was a sheep designed to produce meat, the hidden lamb designed to produce wool, the difference was striking.  The wool eater just hid and chewed away ignoring the prodding of young fingers.    
Some of us know more about sheep than can be found here of course...

Tuesday Tattle

As you can see it was another day of hustle and bustle around the town.  I am not altogether to clear as to whether these are heading for Mr Butcher or being used to cut the grass on rich folks lawns.  I do know the man standing at the side almost out of the picture is worrying the sheep, he keeps repeating "Mint sauce, mint sauce."
Lamb chops are far from my plate today.  Having been at the museum I was not in the mood for hard work by the time I returned home.  All that tea drinking was tiring me out!  Then there was the usual confusion in the morning regarding the kids, who all appeared happy.  Not clear if the boys who arrived were too keen on creating Easter Bonnets mind.  We now go through the long process of replacing the lass who left recently.  Do they keep the capable and popular girl who has been doing the job competently, and in a very organised manner since then, or do they employ someone who fits their image conscious minds?  The secrecy, the whispering, the needless time wasted would not go down well in certain other organisations I have known. Especially those with only a few staff and a capable management.  Be 'up front,' state your case and get on with it.  Not like that here it appears.  

However I limped home and returned to what I do best, I fell asleep.  I have now discovered seven people who died during the war, civilians all, and am struggling to know their stories.  How silly all this is, yet how interesting to piece things together.  Just along the road from me one February Saturday night in 1941 a German plane dropped a few bombs.  Three died, on 13 year old in a house and one unlucky 19 year old lassie who was passing at the time, probably hurriedly!  Many were hurt, garage destroyed, houses badly damaged and now a Sainsburys car park fills the space left!  A sad but not uncommon story that I wished to know for some time and discovered quite by accident.

I occurred to me that I forgot to add yesterday that while I sat pondering in the quiet, deserted cemetery, enjoying the sun, silence and passing birds fluttering by, a cat appeared out of the undergrowth.  It stared towards the large fir tree from where finches sang out to the world.  He did not notice me behind him as I watched his antics, I called and he turned and stared wide eyed, almost as if he had seen a ghost!  I thought for a minute I could hear his heart beating, pumping away to the dozen, but it was more probably mine still recovering from the bike ride downhill!  I noticed a large pigeon fly overhead and when I looked back the cat had disappeared. I hope he has recovered.  
 
   
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Hey Ewe!

I posted a picture a wee while back of tartan coloured sheep.  The other day I came across this picture also.  These sheep belong to a man who's name has run from my head (was it Adams?) at Boghall Farm near Bathgate.  Only Scots would make a Hall in a bog you understand.  Anyway this chap has for some years past dyed his sheep various colours often regarding events at the time. Recently they were dyed purple to support the Erskine charity appeal.  Erskine look after wounded soldiers and purple is their colour.  Quite what was happening when he multi coloured his sheep here I know not.  They can indeed be seen as you pass along the motorway from Edinburgh, Scotland's capital city to Glasgow, where we keep the lower orders.  I just remember that I saw them a few years ago as we passed, i canny mind what colour they were that day however.  
Many farmers now do this to their sheep, this can be done for practical purposes in counting them, twenty red, twenty blue etc, and occasionally such are used in adverts and farmers are always keen on money making schemes.  Some think this harms the flock but it seems to be quite safe.  Poisoned sheep do not retail very well at market anyway.  Sheep can in fact cope with certain poisons very well, although copper does them a lot of harm as arsenic does us.

These boys were participating in an advert regarding Ireland in some form or other.  Some folks rear sheep they have to sit outside chewing the cud with of course, but I myself would never mention this in polite company.

Guardian

Officers of the 42nd Highland Regiment, The Black Watch, photographed by Roger Fenton in the Crimea during the war with Russia in 1854.  Today we read of Simferopol airport receiving several Russian cargo aircraft carrying hundreds of troops.  Clearly Putin is acting the strong man once again, the Russian Fleet is based in the Crimea and he does not wish to lose that port, and in spite of warnings from the US and Europe he clearly intends to support his people there in the eastern half of the Ukraine.    
How easily wars begin.
Barbara Tuchman, that great American Historian wrote 'The March of Folly,' in which she shows how wars begin through peoples misunderstanding of one another and the motives behind each action. Ukraine is divided into two halves, the majority wishing to be part of Europe, the Eastern half predominately Russians descended of those moved there by Stalin wish to associate themselves with Moscow.  For centuries Ukraine was seen as part of the Russian sphere, something many Ukrainians rejected and still reject.  Indeed during the war many wished to support Hitler if it got rid of Stalin! Hitler merely had them shot.  Today a large number wish to join with Russia and the propaganda tells them their opponents are 'fascists,' and a danger.  In fact they are probably just well educated and desire contact with the EU rather than domination by Putin. I tend to side with them, Mr Putin clearly does not.
Will arms be raised in the west?  It appears nothing has been said anywhere, and careful words only will be made public.  A delicate stage has been reached, if Putin sends troops to retake Kiev rather than protect his port this could be dangerous.