After boarding the train for Bristol, finally sorting out how we were going to Lesley's place, spending a perfectly delightful evening with Lesley and seeing her lovely, lovely flock...we were once again loading our luggage into a vehicle to spend the last few days of our UK trip with Maurice and Gilly Wakeling. Maurice and Gilly had generously offered their home for the final 3 days of our stay so that they could drive us around to several UK breeders in the Somerset area and South of England.
Of coarse it rained quite a bit during our stay in the south, but we had enough breaks to get our hands on a couple hundred sheep! I could not get over how green it was there in mid to late October, I could get used to 11 months of grazing for my critters.
Maurice had chosen a delightful cider maker/store where they still press the apples and store the hard cider in wooden casks. The retail portion of the establishment had several kegs behind the counter for varying types of hard cider that included sweet, semi-sweet, dry, champagne style etc., there was no reason not to try all of them. I am a big fan of the cider in the UK.
One of our stops was Heather Chapman and her lovely flock of Gulmogets (and some Katmogets). Heather was a great sport about letting us paw through her sheep despite the rainy weather.
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| Some of Heather Chapman's gulmoget ewes |
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| A lovely fawn katmoget ram |
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| Some of Heather's ewe lambs |
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| The lane leading to Heather's was so beautiful........ |
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| Right to left: Maurice, Gilly and Heather |
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| Mature Chapman ewes |
Another eye popping flock we got to visit and drool over belongs to Jean Curtis. Jean is one of the sweetest ladies, sharp, funny and a very successful Shetland sheep breeder. And a fine baker of cakes as we were to find out a bit later. Another generous soul that too time out of her busy day to entertain us, show us her flock and then give us our fill of tea and cakes.
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| One of our favorite katmoget ewes belonging to Jean Curtis. (amazing flock of Shetland sheep at Jean's) |
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| Jean Curtis' ewe |
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| Some of Jean's girls on pasture |
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| Jean with her ewe flock. She has rubber mats under that straw, so her gals have some comfy digs |
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| Another stunning Katmoget of Jean's. |
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| A closer look at the wonderful badger face on one of Jean's ewes |
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| A sampling of Jean's awards |
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| Mike (my hubby) Garrett in the back Me and Jean in the front. More of her many, many awards behind us. |
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