Not So Fast

We have been having an extremely warm and dry spell of weather here, after a particularly cold and wet one. This is causing havoc in the natural world and for the domesticated animals too. One minute they are too cold, wet and thoroughly depressed. I keep goats and believe me they can do 'depressed' better than some humans. Constant rain and wind really gets them down. They look out at you with those strange slitted pupils (which alarm many people) and give you a look of both rejection and boredom combined. I say 'look out' because they do this from the vantage point of a warm comfy field shelter whilst I am standing outside in the rain, clad from head to foot in waterproofs and gumboots looking like a reject from a nasty experiment as the clouds wring themselves dry on top of me. You get the picture. Not a happy bunny. I am standing there getting damp checking THEY are alright and they are looking at me with such pugnacious belligerence you'd swear they were blaming me for the inclement weather! Honestly everyone is a critic!

Then when it suddenly went very hot and dry they became confused, along with many spring plants round here, hoodwinked into believing spring had sprung and we were all up for round two! So they started head butting and sorting out who was head of the herd, which they normally establish in the spring...so once 'good friends' in the goat houses are suddenly turning a cold shoulder and no longer speaking in their 'goatish' way to one another....Oh this bodes well for an extremely peaceful winter - I don't think.

One interesting sight was a slow worm on the stone farm track soaking up the rays. I have seen them before but never so close and I was able to really look closely. It was a beautiful bronze colour and fascinated me. If there had not been so much early warm sun that day I probably would never have seen it. I never realised until I bothered to look it up, these are lizards 'sans' legs and not snakes at all. Sadly they are persecuted because they are confused with snakes and more especially young Adders which are the only venomous snakes in Britain. The slow worm is entirely harmless and does not deserve to be killed needlessly through fear. I felt very privileged to have seen it and I share this with you.

I have no idea what the winter will bring or how beautiful the autumn colours will be, but I wait with anticipation to see.