Lost little lamb

As regular readers may know, I'm currently having a few days holiday on a farm in Sussex. This farm has chicken and sheep and the sheep are lambing. A lot of the lambs have been born already and are frolicking and growing more every day.

This evening I went for a walk to see the lambs and take some more photos. I had been watching them for a while when I saw this little guy, smaller than the rest and dirty, trotting around trying to suckle from a ewe and then from her lamb but the ewe butted him away. He didn't seem scared of me and kept bleating balefully. I couldn't see any ewe around that looked like it had lambed recently. Most of my lambing knowledge comes from the Lambing Live the BBC showed a few years back.

I decided the little guy needed help and walked back to the farmhouse and knocked and told them about the lamb. My dad then appeared and wanted to see the lambs so I took him back up to the field. The farmers arrived soon after, dressed in lamb catching gear and gloves. I pointed out the lamb and they picked him up without much trouble. They sprayed him with antiseptic and cleaned him up, then began the task of looking for his mother. After several false starts they spotted a ewe which looked to have been lambing recently and had one lamb with her. She was skittish and didn't seem keen to accept her son. When we left them, the farmers were holding both her lambs trying to get closer.

I'll head up in the morning and see if I can see the new lamb. The poor thing was cold and hungry and wouldn't have survived the night alone. I'm glad that I managed to draw their attention to him sooner than they might have noticed him (they apparently check every couple of hours) and hopefully he is now warm and snug with a full belly to enjoy his first night , not cold and alone. He looks to be a fighter but seemed to be losing strength.

Earlier today we went up Ditchling Beacon which have us a lovely view over Sussex. We saw skylarks and I had an ice cream. Then we went to Rottingdean and walked by the sea for a while. The cliffs there remind me of a geography field trip around a decade ago and having to draw "field sketches" for my GCSE coursework. I am terrible at drawing so found it a very tricky task.

Tomorrow I am heading back to suburbia and have to get some food and do laundry, the usual household tasks before work on Thursday.

I will miss the lambs and the variety of birds but I have always been a city girl and find the lack of nearby services and public transport options hard to cope with. Plus I struggle spending a lot of time with my family. My mother is rather trying but I'll save that rant for another time. I'm looking forward to having my own space.