Jonathan: Despite heavy rain overnight and early this morning, the forecast for later in the day looked fair to good, amidst a general pattern of overcast with sunny intervals, so this afternoon Seonaidh and his dogs came along the road and rounded up the sheep into the makeshift fank. Jack demonstrated to the full his energy and enthusiasm, old Bess provided evidence of her age and experience, and Seonaidh rehearsed a few well practiced curses combined with a very quick jabbing action with the crook. It went well enough that, subject to a few refinements, I reckon the layout could be made permanent with a bit of timber and wire fencing and a couple of gates.  With all 38 in the pen, I sifted through them all for a quick check over, and then set too on the remaining twelve – four wedders, a ram and the rest breeding ewes.   …   And three hours later (yes I know, but I did have to pack up the fleeces and tidy away the tools, and fill in my record sheet, and that’s quite time-consuming you know, and anyway I have to do a good job on those fleeces or D …) well, okay, three and a bit, and I was back home for my dinner with some lovely dark fleeces, though not as heavy or soft as last year (that’s due to the abysmal winter conditions followed by a long drought).  Just one thing though: I had some cuts and grazes on my hands from fencing work which have been slow to heal, and something in the fleeces makes them sting like mad (I find it very difficult to shear in gloves!), and I do wonder whether I’ve picked up an infection, as they are swelling up.