What ewe looking at? I do enjoy walking the dogs, a good job as we have two of them. But more so, I enjoy it when the girls come too and we just chat as we walk along. They’re not always that enthusiastic about walking the dogs, especially the teenagers. Sometimes I wonder if they are allergic to fresh air! But last week Delilah came along with me as we took Dottie and Duke around a favourite route.
Conversation with a 10-year-old can be very diverse. From the reason why there is a weir in the river, to why the river dries up, to what we’re having for lunch, to where do the sheep sleep. It’s varied. But in this field, we had ewe aplenty, a couple of tups. “What’s a tup?” came the question, “and why do they wear harnesses?”, quickly followed.
Now, we’re pretty relaxed with the facts of life. So I explained that:
a tup is a ram and that is a daddy sheep. The ram’s job is to make baby lambs with as many ewes as he can. The hardness holds a special wax crayon that marks a colour on the back of the eye so the farmer knows which tup is the daddy of which lamb.
Not a bad explanation, targeted age appropriately if I do say so myself.
“So how does the crayon get on the sheep Daddy?”
“And why do some sheep have more than one colour on them?”
“And why does the farmer need to know which tup is the Daddy?”
It’s fair to say I was fielding questions about the birds and the bees for a little while – but for sheep. Not once did she relate the question to us mere humans. But I always try and answer questions honestly.
About the photo
This photos (at the top of the post) is one of the two tups in this field. He and his harem were happily going about their day.
I took a few shots of him, but I liked this one because of the way he and three of his ewes are staring at me. They watched us all the way through their field.
- Camera: Canon EOS M50
- Lens: Canon M 14-45mm
- Exposure: ƒ/7.1 | 1/250sec | 45 mm | ISO100
While you are here
Please check out some of my other posts from this week:
- Maths – They Didn’t Teach It Like That In My Day (Part 2)
- Christmas Is Cancelled
- A Lion’s Work Hours Are Only When He’s Hungry
- My Photo Friday – Linky #2
- Choosing The Right Walking Boots
- 15 Things I Hate About Christmas
Thanks for reading
Dave
Oh this brings back memories of my time living in North Yorkshire. Such a lot of discussion about sheep with local farmers. And yes, that is a diverse chat to have with a 10 year old! Hope Radio5 Live went well. I regret I was asleep at the time. #mysundayphoto
Veru diverse.
5Live when well, albeit very briefly!