成人快手

Erlend is pure white. The only thing not white are his dancing blue eyes that peer at me from the layer of white concrete dust covering him from the top of his wild hair to the toe of his (now white) barn boots. Like usual he's grinning away as merry as ever. He is busy converting some of the stalls in the old stone tied byre into a large sheep pen so that we can lamb indoors. I love this old byre! it is maybe 150 or 200 years old? Part of it used to be a hoose. The outside walls are made of stone and it matches perfectly the dyke (stone wall) that encloses our garden.

Our new Angus bull is white as well! He's tied at the end stall and looks a bit freaked out. When I first walked into the byre he looked so blue-roan I thought he was one of our young heefers with Shorthorn blood! He's young so he almost doesn't look like a bull from behind when you take a quick glance at him. His hind feet danced a bit as he swung his rear around so he could see who I was.

"Hi Torf!" I said as I recognized him. He's a good-natured bull but he can be a bit strong with the head. We had a face off about two weeks ago and I think I may have won: He had been pawing the grund and shaking his head at me so I pawed the grund, stomped a few times and shook my head right back! Torf stopped what he was doing and stared at me, stunned. He shook his head, I pawed, stamped and shook my head! Again he stared... and after a few seconds he backed off and walked away. Ever since then he's backed away from me when I've walked up to him - even though he'll gladly come over for a scratch. (All of our bulls know that if they come to the gate I'll whip out a curry comb and give their shoulders and necks a good scratch.)

My Yeti Husband told me that Torf, who is named after the old Viking word for peat, refused to walk down the narrow dark passage from the upper court into the tied byre. Apparently young Torf was a bit concerned about the long dark tunnel. I don't blame him. Every time I walk down that passage I picture billions of spiders just waiting to pounce on me!

We bought Torf down in the Perth bull sales. What fun that was for me! I did not grow up on a farm so things which are normal to farmers (like bull sales) are totally exciting to me. We hopped on the ferry to Scrabster, drove all the way down to a lovely B&B called, "Glenkilrie House" and stayed for two days while we attended the Angus bull sales in Perth. Erlend spent a long time oggling bulls and watching the shows before he made up his mind as to which ones he would bid on - and bid he did! The competition for Thorf was a bit fierce for a while but he managed to win and we soon had ourselves a new deep black Angus bull!

The B&B was lovely: a big white mansion set in acres and acres of rolling hill farm countryside. When I got up that first morning and went to use the loo I found five rams peering right in the window at me! There were phesants everywhere - I've never seen so many of the long-tailed birds before! They ran in herds through every field and I wondered if the farmers were farming cattle and phesant?? I wanted to catch some so I could steal a few tail feathers but the phesants had other plans and kept far away from my greedy hands.

Erlend and I have decided we'll go back to the area for a holiday. I really enjoyed my time down in Perthshire - the landscape is eyewateringly beautiful and the people, like everywhere in Scotland, were jovial and friendly. And there were TREES!! The one thing I well and truly miss here in Orkney is trees. But at the same time I have to admit that I also enjoy the wide-open landscape! And we do have some trees in our lovely walled garden - Erlend loves trees and has spent most of his life planting them. The only prolem is that since trees are scarce it seems that every bird on the island roosts in ours and they crap all over the leaves. So the trees aren't very pretty to look at close-up. I grew up in the forests of Massachusetts and I don't recall ever seeing so much bird poo on the branches and leaves!! Ugh.