Sheepish Grin

Smile. On second thoughts, don't bother! I'm not sure if this smiling sheep is cute, scary or just plain disturbing. Whatever, she certainly isn't camera shy!

Best sheep related pun or joke wins a Cheltenham postcard. The winner will be revealed tomorrow.

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Fresh From The Farm

As promised, a return to Cheltenham. On the first and last Friday of the month the Farmers Market comes to town. There are about 30 stalls selling all sorts of food, drink and plants produced in Gloucestershire. I don't get to go very often, as I'm normally at work, but as I was off last week, I seized the opportunity to go. I came home with bread, cakes, samosas, goats cheese, white wine plus a few other goodies! The Farmers Market is a really good idea and it allows people to support local producers. I think most towns and cities have one these days. What is the one near you like?

Don't forget Theme Day tomorrow!

Herd Of The Countryside?

One of the great things about living in Cheltenham is that you are never very far from the countryside. To the North are the rolling fields towards Tewkesbury, to the East are the Cotswold hills and all the chocolate box villages, to the South the Forest of Dean, and to the West the spectacular Malvern hills. Between these four points are numerous farms, villages, woods, forest and fields.

This herd of cows, well calves actually, are in the fields that separate the South West of Cheltenham and the suburbs of the neighbouring city of Gloucester. Over the years this strip of farmland (the Green Belt) has been gradually shrinking and is always under threat from development, as the Green Belt boundary changes. I hope that there will always be some open space between Cheltenham and Gloucester as the merger of the two heavily populated areas would do them both damage.

Pig In Muck

In a field, close to where I work, is this pig. The Pig (a Gloucester Old Spot) is quite lucky because the owners of the patch of land use it for homing rescued farm animals, so who knows where he came from or worse, where he was heading. I've seen this pig for a few weeks now and the other day I decided I'd get a snap. As I lept over the ditch, to get up to the fence, he spotted me and came charging over (pigs move fast, even through thick mud!) grunting and snorting. I grabbed my camera, as I backed away fearing for my own safety (pigs are big!), and started clicking away and this is the only picture I took that wasn't blurred!

Here are 5 facts about pigs :-

1. Pigs have litters of up to 15 piglets
2. Pigs eat up to 5% of their body weight in food a day
3. Pigs have 4 toes on each foot but only walk on 2 of them
4. Pigs have 44 teeth and the canine teeth constantly grow
5. Pigs have a 30 minute orgasm!

Quackers

Went to visit some friends on there small holding (mini farm!) near Ross, in Herefordshire. They bought a near derelict house and unused land about 8 years ago and have been slowly renovating it. The land is now home to cows, sheep, chickens, geese and ducks. As a side line to their day jobs they also breed and sell guinea pigs. Apart from the farmhouse kitchen the house is still in a state of disrepair. They are both hoarders so all the other rooms are full of bits of wood and salvaged building material that, apparently, will one day be useful. The area they live in is stunning, countryside views all round, and although areas around Cheltenham are rural, this is truly the country life.