Bleats and Blogs

Talk to farmers and almost immediately they will regale you with the two most repeated animal husbandry mantras: where there is livestock, there is dead stock and sheep come into this world looking for a way to leave it. Although I do my best not to repeat these...

For the past 3 years, I have had milk delivered to my door. The twice weekly ritual is not so much because of the mere convenience of the delivery, although I will admit it is a happy state of affairs. No, the delivery has more to do with using and reusing glass...

I have never been, nor will I ever be, a slavish follower of fashion fads and trends. In fact, I will contrarily go and do the exact opposite. It’s because I do not understand why people unquestioningly do what others do, or feel the need to emulate what some celeb...

Sadly, every year, a number of members of the public, while walking across fields, get attacked by cows. This most commonly happens when the cows have calves at foot and therefore their maternal, protective instincts are on steroids. The outcome is rarely good and the...

There are ruffled feathers among the Australian wool community. This is because Woolnews’ latest update (March 19) asks: is it acceptable for a non-wool product to market itself as vegan wool? The product is three parts cotton and the balance a weed called calotropis....

A good deal of personalised customer interaction lies at the heart of how we run Southdown Duvets. In a conscious decision to avoid the automated, soulless and often highly unsatisfactory way online retail sales have evolved in recent years, we encourage our customers...

Let’s get this straight. You never own a Maremma Sheepdog. From the outset, you and the dog harmoniously agree to symbiotically co-exist under one roof and if you cannot accept that, avoid this breed. My Cal is a perfect example and to illustrate my point, look no...

I was on an early morning train from Petersfield to London, Waterloo – just over an hour’s journey. Having already enjoyed my mug of tea before leaving the house, I settled down on the train to enjoy the second mug. It was only after I had drained that cup, did the...

Isn’t it strange that often it’s the briefest encounter one has with another human that has the most lasting impact? During my years as a mineral economist in the City, I was lucky enough to live close to Regents Park and I loved to spend time there, usually walking...

Leo, the cat, has a very odd relationship with food. Put any range of tasty morsels in front of him and he merely sits there looking vaguely offended. He only eats dry cat pellets and more specifically only one brand and one flavour, namely fish. But he does this with...