Friends farm...

My friend let me come to her farm today to photograph her sheep. They are due to lamb in the next few days. These girls are epically pregnant. Huge, and unwieldy.  They look like this every year. In seasons past I have gotten better photographs of how enormous they really look. This year they were not cooperative with me. Each time I framed them up in my viewfinder, with their bellies captured to show the enormity of it all, they pivoted and moved.  But I enjoyed seeing them, even if I was not able to capture a photograph that would show exactly how impressive they look.  Beach balls on toothpicks.

They spend their day in the winter pasture, eating their fill of good hay, and snoozing in the sun.  At night they are moved to the barn, and soon they will stay there until they lamb.  Today was unseasonably warm, and the sheep, heavy with lambs, stayed outside, quiet and close to the food.

They were curious about me.

This girl approached, sniffed, made firm eye contact, and "baaahhhhed" at me.

Then she smiled.  She knows things that I do not know.  Soon life will emerge from her body, and she will turn the spring grass into milk to feed that life. And her lamb will grow to become a sheep.  Hopefully next year that lamb will be ripe and heavy with new life.  And I will come on a fine early spring day and take her picture.  Then I will share it with you. The circle of blog. And of life. And of sheep. 

The signs of spring are showing.  Daffodil sprouts in the garden, round, heavy, ewes, and longer days.  Life on and around farms is where one can see the seasons send the tendrils of change.  It is all good.