Monthly Archives: March 2013

A Festive Spring (With Gynaecological Rhubarb)

Posted on March 31, 2013 by Francis Pryor

This cold weather has held everything back, except one or two of our ewes who have had prolapses. This normally happens in the last weeks before lambing and is a result of a shortage of space in the body cavity, … Continue reading →

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Not Losing the Plot

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Francis Pryor

I’m sometimes asked how I manage to combine sheep farming with writing. A follow-up question is often about the difficulty of getting back into the swing of writing, after a period away from it. I suspect both would be answered … Continue reading →

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In the deep mid-spring

Posted on March 11, 2013 by Francis Pryor

These last few days have been as cold and unpleasant as any I’ve experienced. Three days ago we had 19mm of rain, so the garden flooded. The following night it froze hard, so heaven knows what damage was done to … Continue reading →

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The Long View: from the Floor

Posted on March 5, 2013 by Francis Pryor

Introductory Note This is the original version of the item I posted in the Independent blog. As ever, I over-wrote and then had to cut it back to 800 words, which is what they’d requested in the first place. Trouble … Continue reading →

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Lambing: a good start, fingers crossed

Posted on March 5, 2013 by Francis Pryor

Like every sheep and cattle farmer in Britain, we’re keeping our fingers crossed in case we’re hit by the dreaded Schmallenberg Disease which could easily cause us to lose 80 of our expected 200 lambs. But worse even than that, … Continue reading →

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The Ladders to Heaven at Bath

Posted on March 3, 2013 by Francis Pryor

Bath is best known for its stunning early Georgian architecture, mostly designed by John Wood, father and son (see The Making of the British Landscape, pp. 424-7). These superb buildings have quite rightly earned the city a place as a … Continue reading →

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Lambing 2013 Kicks off with healthy twins!

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Francis Pryor

Lambing officially (i.e. 21 weeks after we put the tups to the ewes in early October) starts tomorrow, but when I went out for the dawn patrol this morning, I came across these two lovely lambs wandering around near the … Continue reading →

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A Most Remarkable Woman: Gwen Raverat (1885-1957)

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Francis Pryor

Gwendolen (Gwen) Darwin was the grand-daughter of the great Charles Darwin. In 1911 she married a Frenchman, Jacques Raverat and one of their daughters, Sophie, married my father’s elder brother Mark. Dr. Mark Pryor was a very distinguished zoologist and … Continue reading →

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