The late-May hot weather was ideal for shearing.  John has shorn my sheep for 19 springs now.  The sheep know what to expect, poor things.  Their fleeces are not particularly fine; they're mostly used for carpets (so please buy wool ones!).  These are Ryelands, fat lowland sheep; they give quick-growing, hungry lambs.  So I intend slowly changing to a primitive breed (Hebridean) which will eat rougher hay and much less grains, and give a thick fleece, and lambs which finish on grass and come good at 18 months, not 4.

The latest wwoofer was Despina from Greece.  She didn't have long here, but she learned how to grow cauliflowers, from digging and mucking the ground to watering in; and she taught me how to make stuffed vine leaves, using my fresh leaves (I never have time to prune the vine, so the leaves are a better crop than the grapes, alas).  They're a good peasant dish, you can stuff them with anything you have, as long as you use lots of herbs.