…but only in magical Northumberland. 

At the time Stefano took the photo of these two flying lambs, I was climbing to the top of a muddy and sheep poop-ridden hill to take a photo of a stone-built bastle house (from the French bastille), a sort of 16th-17th century fortified farmhouse. This particular bastle was Black Middens Bastle House (see: http://tinyurl.com/3wr3uh). I won’t post the photo I took, since the one on the website is a much better one.

Anyway, Stefano had stayed behind in the car park and was watching a few lambs at play in a nearby field. When they began jumping high up in the air, he grabbed his camera and took a few photos. This was his lucky shot!

And this, by the way, is lambing season in Northumberland. I have never ever seen so many lambs (or sheep) in my entire life! Thousands. I kid you not. Or rather, I lamb you not!  I think I may have more photos of lambs and sheep than of puffins, if possible. Adorable creatures.

These (above, left) are two lambs that we encountered on our climb toward Housesteads, a Roman fort located halfway along Hadrian’s Wall, whose construction began in 122 AD or thereabouts. Almost 74 miles long, the wall is a stone and turf fortification built by the Roman Empire across the width of modern-day England (source: Wikipedia). Even though it is a ruin, the wall is still very impressive and offers spectacular views of the surrounding countryside. Such as the one on the right.

I will need a few more days (weeks? months? years?) to go through all the messages I received in my absence (almost 400 e-mails, gasp!, in spite of the fact that I unsubscribed from one of the myeloma patient lists…) and settle back into our regular routine. But for now, in spite of having gone back to work today, I am still in blissfully happy holiday mode…