Sheep!

The time is flying by and I haven’t shown you all the rest of the things I saw in England! So I’ll show the highlights.

This is in the town in Cornwall near blacker Yarns called Launceston. There is a lovely little yarn store there. I bought a couple of things because I like to support the local yarn shops. We went into the Pub on the left of the road with the red sign looking for lunch but it was after 2PM by now and most places stop serving meals betwween 2 and 5PM. We asked them if they knew of a place in town that served food at that hour and a man at one of the tables answered. I have no idea what he said. The combination of the pints he had drunk up till then and his thick Cornish accent were too much for me. So we continued walking down the street a little to a little coffee house thinking we would at least get a scone and some tea.

To our delight they had jacket potatoes (which are baked potatoes to me) with great toppings. I got a hot chocolate of course which was so delicious and a potato with bacon and brie. The above photo is what came out. It was gorgeous and delicious! I ate it all! Then off we went to our hotel for the night. it was called Camelot Castle.  I was excited.

This is the view from our room. Castle ruins, a maze and the ocean. Gorgeous and stress relieving.

The castle itself was built in the late 1800s and was always a hotel.

But this was out room. It was comfortable and very large. I didn’t take a photo of the bathroom but as you can imagine the hotel was built before it was customary for each room to have it’s own bath so they were added later. It was an entire unit made of fiber glass that kind of sat in the corner. it was kind of funny but definitely did its duty…no I didn’t say doody.

In the morning we went a little ways into the village nearby and ate at a pub across from this old post office that was one of the most charming little buildings and is on the Historic Registry of England.

Here’s my breakfast! It was so good!!!!

On the way back to Bex’s house we stopped at Cold Harbour Mill which is a mill that had been in existence since the 1800s but then closed for a bit. Now it is a working mill again and is open for tours. When we were there there were lots of school children and tour guides in costume. There used to be a large number of children who worked at the mill before child labor laws and so the fun was to demonstrate how the children would have been treated. It actually wasn’t very nice.

This man who works at the mill is showing us one of a set of wool combs. I could get a lot of combing done with those!

The next day was sheep visiting day and I was very happy.

Our first visit was to Karen Tesson’s farm. She makes the spindles called Wildcraft. She also has Ryeland and Shetland sheep. That is a Ryeland Ewe who was very shy.

the other girls weren’t as shy. Plus we had a bit of food for them.

Here is the ram. I was there in the season for Tupping aka breeding. This fine young man is wearing a raddle which holds chalk. That way when a ewe has been visited by this ram the shepherd knows by the chalk mark on her back. It’s really smart. Some shepherds change chalk colors each week so they can have an idea of when each ewe will be due to deliver her lambs.

here are some of Karen’s gorgeous Shetland Ewes. They were a little more shy than the Ryelands and I only got one good scritch in.

I took this photo of the British Chickens for my favorite chicken farmer Jacey Boggs. (Have you heard about her new spinning magazine?) While we were at Karen’s farm she treated us to a cream tea and had special gluten free scones for me! it was so delicious and i love clotted cream. i wish I could get it more easily here.

Next we went to see Donna’s sheep. These are the rams. Two Shetlands and a Two Polwarths.  See how freindly they are? We didn’t even have any food for them!

And some young Shetland and Polwarth sheep. They have gorgeous faces.

This is the house where they live. Not in the house but next to it. I just thought it was pretty. And it’s for sale if anyone is moving to South West England.

And I just loved this girl. She’s a mule which is a cross of BFL and another sheep. Her wool is exquisite and she was very friendly to me.

Also, pink cottage!

And Mr Darcy’s house, Pemberly. Actually it’s Chatsworth House.  It’s the home of the Duke and Dutchess of  Devonshire but it was used in the 2005 edition of Pride and Predjudice.

This is in the town of Bakewell. Robert Bakewell was a man before his time. Cross breeding sheep to get certain outcomes before anyone really understood genetics. He is the developer of the Dishley Leicester which is also known as English Leicester or Leicester Longwool.

This is another thing called Bakewell that I love. It’s Bakewell pudding.  it’s a sort of pie with a filling that is hard to describe, with a side of warm custard to pour over it. I dream about this pudding. I crave it. And yes, it does have gluten but it was so worth it!

While we were in the north we stayed with Janet who owns the Threshing Barn. Go look at her website. The woman is a power house and never stops moving. She is an amazing cook, a wonderful teacher, a successful business owner and just delightful to talk to. I had a great time at her home.

She also has rare breed cows, a small number of pigs and a nice herd of sheep which include English Herdwick. There are no Herdwick sheep in the US and so i was excited to see them.

Aren’t they cute! I can’t for the life of me remember what the other breed is that she has. They are adorable but it’s not coming to me. I’ll add it when I remember.

England was fantastic and I’m already planning to go back next year. Wanna come along?

Bex, aka NinjaBex on Ravelry, was the perfect hostess and I know that after I left she fell exhausted onto her couch and didn’t get up again for days. She drove me all over the country and put up with my teasing and acted like all of my nonsense was no trouble. I am forever grateful to her for that and for inviting me to England. Also, there was fish stew:-)

this post doesn’t cover the thousands of sheep we saw while driving or the dozens we could identify in the fields. let me just say that the British Countryside is overrun by sheep and if you love sheep, go there!