Sheep, and Sheep Poo

Sorry for the mini-break! Blogging on an ipod touch while trying not to be the world's worst antisocial house/caravan guest is very difficult.

Hence, I have waited until I am back in the comfort of the ol' slanket, on the ol' sweet spot of our landlord's ol' couch, before recapping a most lovely weekend in Wales.

Thanks first of all to our great hosts Ynyr and Sarah, who drove us around, fed, us, and gave us bed to sleep on. Thanks to Seren, who has convinced Keith that we need a dog in our lives. Thanks to all the Welsh people that I encountered, who put up with me butchering the pronounciation of all the place names.

We began our Easter adventure last Friday by driving from London to Rhayader, which is a tiny little town halfway up the country in Wales. We stayed at a charming little country guesthouse, although the water pressure left a lot to be desired. It is an indication that there is a problem when one sticks a shower on a corner bathtub but installs no shower curtain or shower door - so weak is the pressure that no matter what effort you made it is almost impossible to splash outside of the tub when there is just a weak trickle barely getting you wet enough to sud up. Alright, TMI.

On Saturday morning we drove up to the Northwest coast of Wales to Harlech, where Ynyr and Sarah live. We also drove around Snowdonia national park on Sunday and throughout these two days, I never tired of looking out the car window at the sheep - mainly because it is lambing season and for every sheep we saw there was often a little lamb scampering around behind it. Behold, the first pictures to go up in the blog!

Isn't that little guy cute? These sheep actually belong to Ynyr and his family. I chased them across half the field trying to get a picture of them, so give me an A for effort and excuse my poor photography skills.

The other thing that always amuses me is how the poor sheep always get spray-painted, and then stand around all over the countryside looking like they got vandalized. Apparently this is the farmers' way of tagging them and knowing which ones have been vaccinated, but I always imagine the sheep standing there munching away but always thinking 'Why have you gone all Banksy on my ass (literally!)?'

See, look at these guys! They make the field look like a bingo hall full of cute little grandmas with blue rinse in their snowy white hair:

And, last but not least, check out these three having a staring contest with us. Don't the two that are standing directly facing us just look like two round puffs of wool with two little legs? Too cute.

I close this sheep-themed post with a few facts that I learned about sheep poo, read off of the back of a card in a gift shop:

- a sheep only digests 50% of the cellulose fibre it eats. you can therefore collect the poo and use the leftover fibre to make recycled paper products!!! actually check it out: www.sheeppoopaper.com
- a sheep poos 1 kg of poo every day
- the sheep poo paper company makes 75 bookmarks out of 1 kg of sheep poo
- a sheep sleeps 8 minutes per day, and does not poo in its sleep