I'm travelling at the moment, but just for fun I searched my Google+ photo file under the topic of sheep, and apart from some photographs that I've used in previous blogs, came up with a few examples of sheep and goats photographed in various countries over the last few years.
The first photo below is of a rather agressive looking ram in a field close to our relatives' farm on the outskirts of the village of Clehonger, Herefordshire. On a walk down the lanes, I hoped the fence between us was without any gaps, but nevertheless I didn't hang around after taking his photograph, just in case. Those horns could do some damage!
These sheep near Apollo Bay in Victoria could enjoy a spectacular ocean view, but they probably never notice it, being much too busy contentedly munching grass. We were staying nearby in a unit with the same view, and we did find time to admire it.
This is what a drover in the Wairarapa district of New Zealand's North Island looks like, and if you're driving on a country road it may take a while to get past him and his flock, giving plenty of time for photographs. Sheep have right of way here and it's not a good idea to speed, as you never known when you'll come across them around the next bend in the road. Sheep numbers in New Zealand are decreasing but there are still around 6 sheep for every per person in the country.
This photograph shows a statue of a mountain goat in the main street of snowy Smithers in British Columbia Canada, taken by my sister Louisa, whose daughter lives there. We haven't been there ourselves yet, but hope to visit one of these days. Apparently the statue was erected as a tribute to all the local people who work in the guiding business.
And finally, a couple of sure-footed goats spotted on the steep slope surrounding the walls of the medieval Chateau at Fougeres in Brittany, France, which we visited today. Fougeres is a lovely old town to wander through, with beautiful gardens and half-timbered medieval houses surrounding its moated chateau, of which only the walls and a few towers remain.
So no sepian shepherds or sheep from me this week, but I'm sure you'll find some from other bloggers here at
http://sepiasaturday.blogspot.fr/2016/05/sepia-saturday-329-7-may-2016.html
9 comments:
I was interested how you found your photos in Google+??
Yes, it is pretty incredible how it will search for a particular item that you enter, eg. sheep, castle, hat, knitting, bird, etc, and while it may Pick up a few photos that are not what you've asked for, for example a flock of white birds that it 'thinks' look like sheep, it will generally find all the photos that include that item. I'm also interested in the face recognition tool ie. the way it sometimes picks out related people who look alike because they have similar features.
Just shows, sheep look the same all over the world! Have a great trip.
That first shot -- the ram -- looks kind of like a stern-faced queen with those funny hair arrangements from the 15th century...and the castle reinforces that image for me!
Ha ha, I see what you mean. Never mind that the ram was in England and the castle in France, no doubt that ram considered himself the king of his domain, ie. small securely fenced and hedged-in field.
You were wise to take your picture of that ram & move away. You never know about them & what they're thinking! The view of Apollo Bay is gorgeous & the grazing sheep are the perfect foreground. I've often wondered if animals have any kind of an artistic mind when it comes to what they see? Nice that you were able to enjoy that view, though. The pic' of the drover moving the sheep reminds me of ranchers here who move their cattle to higher ground for the summer right up the highway. They usually do it very early in the morning & are restricted to one lane allowing through vehicle traffic to take turns on the open lane. I had to drive through a herd of cattle at feeding time on an old back road once - cows mooing all around me. I just moved slowly tapping my horn & eventually I was free, but it was mildly nerve-wracking. :)
That statue of the goat makes it look very noble. We have goats a-plenty here, and hardly any sheep, an we benefit from some lovely cheeses made from their milk.
I don't think I would have liked to tangle with that Herefordshire ram either. What a magnificent beast. I use Creative Commons to look for theme related photos when I can't find any of my own.
I somehow missed this post last year and I'm sorry I did. That ram is fantastic. Amazing horns. And you talking about the sheep in New Zealand made me think back on driving around Scotland in the Highlands. You never knew when you'd come around a corner and there'd be sheep standing in the middle of the road. But what always amazed me was that I never saw any dead sheep...until I went to Skye. There were dead sheep all over the place so I figured the mainland just shipped the dead ones over. I'm kidding, but there were a lot of dead sheep on Skye.
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