I have a nice vantage point looking over the lower pasture where the main flock is grazing these days.

I photographed the flock early this morning, before I moved them to fresh pasture, and the frosty start put the grazed and ungrazed areas into high relief.  The brighter green area in the middle of their enclosure is newly sprouted stinging nettle, providing one small frustration in an otherwise idyllic scene:  I’ve struggled to control the dense stands of nettle in this field, and I was hoping the sheep might eat the fresh young growth (I’ve heard that other people’s sheep do eat it), but they weren’t interested at all.  I suppose if I left them in there for 2 or 3 more days they might nibble it in desperation, but only after every last blade of grass had been chewed out of existence.  I guess nettle control strategies will roll over onto next year’s to-do list.

(I’m not sure why counting sheep has acquired sleep-inducing connotations.  Getting an accurate tally of a constantly-moving collection of nearly identical white creatures feels a lot like a panic attack to me, particularly if I really need to know the number.  I was quietly pleased that the miracle of digital photography rendered them eminently countable, and doubly pleased to confirm that I still have 64 sheep in this group.)