Red Deer, Spring Colour...and Sheep as Eco-Friendly Lawn Mowers



Imagine: It was a beautiful day yesterday, after weeks of cold, grey, snowy weather - and so I decided to take Harry, my border terrier, out for a long walk across the fields.  I had just crossed a newly ploughed field, when I turned a corner - and stopped - because there, standing silently beside a hedge, was this small herd of red deer.  We all stared at each other in shock, before I quickly looped Harry's lead around a post and took out my camera.  Fortunately, this was at the end of the walk, so Harry felt too tired, as well as a bit too small and outnumbered, to think about taking on a herd of deer just a few feet away....

I think I was helped, moments later, by the appearance of a tractor in the next field which distracted the deer.  That's why they're all looking away from me.  I was the lesser of the two evils.

In the end, the approaching tractor became too much for them, and they ran off and away from me across the field.

So, I decided, then, what I was going to do for the rest of the morning - and I took my camera out to look for wildlife, and spring colour.  I found this rhododendron bush...

And singing right above me was this lovely song thrush...



The bees are flying again (at last) and were out on the last of the crocuses and the hellebores.

Sheep as Eco-Friendly Lawn Mowers

This is about bees and other insects, too - because last week I read that a suburb in Paris is using sheep as eco-friendly lawn mowers on green spaces.  It's not the first time this has been used in Europe, but it is a first for such an urban area.  The idea behind this is that the sheep will replace insect-harming chemicals and polluting, petrol lawn mowers, and that they will promote biodiversity. It's often reported how sheep have overgrazed grass, but this initiative is about creating sustainable green areas.  Sheep will replace machines, and will once again be grazing amongst people as they always used to do. 

In addition to moving sheep on to green spaces, it would be fantastic if wildflower areas could be created, too - because then insects and birds, would really start to thrive again in cities, towns and villages.

After I read about the Paris sheep, I looked at my own three ancient sheep and wondered.  We've used them as eco-friendly lawn mowers for years to keep the grass low at the smallholding - and so it occurred to me, then, that I could hire them out.  They're too old and a bit lazy to wander off now.  They eat anything and are easily bribed with apples...

It's worth thinking about.