The Next Step

Sunday afternoons are great. I had time yesterday to take three lovely little girls out for a walk in the yard. Penny was one of them, of course, now almost four weeks old.

Maggie is the youngest at about a week old. Her mother didn't have any milk or want her, so she's ended up on the bottle. She's a mixture of Suffolk, Texel and Charollais.

They all had a nibble of the grass on the side of the lane.

Penny is surprisingly difficult to photograph - not because she moves around all the time (she does), but because she's always pulling funny faces.

Exploring.

I stood on the platform and looked down. When they are older the lambs will probably have a ball climbing up here and jumping down again.

For now they don't know what steps are for.

Pip would like me to point out that she doesn't need steps, she jumps, thank you.

The lambs were confused - they could hear my voice but they couldn't find me.

Penny wasn't too worried.

I finally went down the steps again and the lambs were very pleased with themselves that they'd found me!

The final member of our party is Audrey, now around two weeks old. She's a mixture of Texel and Hampshire Down.

This was a failed attempt to jump up onto the step.

The lambs had fun nibbling on the moss that grows on these steps.

They didn't wander far.

For Maggie and Audrey this was their first time outside.

Even so, Audrey made her way onto that first step eventually.

"Blimey, it's a long way down..."

Penny, adverse to my expectations, stayed on level ground.

But Maggie, she was ambitious. She could see that Aunty Pippin was at the top of the steps.

So she climbed two steps up.

A much better view.

She didn't go any further - this was quite high enough.

Audrey and Penny were still sampling the moss on the ground.

"Blimey, it's an even longer way down..."

One perfect leap later, Maggie rejoined the others.

Sometimes I just have to pause and say how cute Audrey is.

"Oh, mummy - Maggie's on the steps again."

Audrey returning after wandering off for a few moments.

"Mmm, delicious moss..."

"Mmm, delicious ears..."

I thought it best to go back to the shed before the girls resorted to cannibalism.