Thursday 17 March 2016

Baa Baa Heep! Baa Baa Heep!




Something tells me this week's Sepia Saturday prompt photo could well lead to cuteness overload, but who am I to (jum)buck* that trend?

The first three few photos below show my sister Louisa aged about 5, petting and feeding lambs and a goat on the farm of our mother Jean's cousin Austin William (Bill) Morrison and his wife Coral near Blenheim New Zealand, in the north of the South Island. Jean and Louisa had flown over there from Canberra in August 1963 for the wedding of Jean's brother Peter and his wife Doreen, who also comes from Blenheim. Heather and Graeme are children of Bill's sister Daphne and her husband Eric, so they are second cousins to Louisa and myself. I don't know that we've ever met, or that Louisa has seen them since, although I did meet Coral, Daphne and Eric about 10 yeas ago. I'm not sure who the three people are in the background of the first photo, but two of them could be Grandmother Mona and Uncle Derek, mother and brother of Jean and Peter. Coral passed away last year in her mid 90s. It looks like Louisa enjoyed her day at the farm and hopefully the wedding too. She wasn't born in NZ but moved there about 25 years ago and lives in the far north of the North Island.  




Continuing with the cuteness theme, here are Strahan and Laura, Louisa's nephew and niece and our two youngest, aged about 3 and a 1/2 and 15 months respectively, at a petting farm in Dural on the outskirts of Sydney in 1988. We were there on an excursion with Strahan's pre-school class.  



Probably a good thing that Laura wasn't bottle-fed, otherwise that bottle might have been rather tempting!



Laura back for another visit the following year in 1989



 Laura's 2 year old niece Isabelle currently loves talking about 'baa baa heep', as per the title of this post, and while I don't yet have a photo of her with the real thing, it's these nursery rhyme toys knitted by her Nan that have inspired her, ie. Baa Baa Black Sheep and Mary and her Little Lamb.

                                            
                                            
                                                                    
*For those who don't know, jumbuck is an old Australian term for sheep.



If you can cope with seeing more sweet animal photos from other Sepians, Just click here

16 comments:

Helen Killeen Bauch McHargue said...

If one is to make a cautious remark do you express it as.......jumbuckish? If so, I'll comment jumbuckishly that your post is delightful and a perfect match on several counts for the prompt. The children are adorable.

Jofeath said...

No, no such word as jumbuckish as far as I know, but thanks anyway Helen :-)

kathy said...

That first photo is adorable. She looks like she is having a great time. I like the knitted toys. My grandma crocheted an elephant for me and I still have it.

diane b said...

Great hit on the theme. They sure are cute photos.

Wendy said...

Baby animals are just so cute. I have been re-learning lots of little songs to sing to my grandbabies. One I just Googled for lyrics is "Mary Had a Little Lamb." Whew -- didn't realize there were so many verses to that one!

Barbara Rogers said...

Yes, there is a great deal of cuteness here. I was wondering how the littlest children were dealing with the bottles...there are some thirsty looks in some of the photos. LOVE the little toys!

Mike Brubaker said...

I had a feeling that lamb/children photos would be easy for the Sepia folk from the Southern Hemisphere. You get full marks for this one.

Lavender and Vanilla Friends of the Gardens said...

Children and baby animals are calling out for cuteness; the knitted toys are delightful.

Sharon said...

Your post made me smile. And yes an overload of cuteness!

21 Wits said...

Such adorable photos, lambs are just as sweet as little munchkins too!

Kristin said...

I'm glad you explained jumbuck! I was wondering what I was missing. And I was thinking the same thing about the bottle and the baby feeding the lamb.

La Nightingail said...

Young children and young animals are magic together! What a sweet post.

Nancy said...

How cute that so many of the lambs are wearing collars!
--Nancy. (ndmessier @ aol.com, joyforgrace.blogspot.com)

Jofeath said...

Some of the verses that have been added are not really suitable for grandchildren :-)

Jofeath said...

No doubt collars make them a lot easier to hold onto.

Little Nell said...

Children and animals together - well done, and as usual, I’m a great admirer of the knitted dolls.