I set off today for a walk with my big lens on my camera hoping to get a really cute shot of some lambs. I went alone so I didn’t scare them but despite walking quite some distance, saw only a handful of sheep, all very fat with their babies inside them but without any offspring for me to photo.

As I was on my way home, the evening gathering of cows was starting on the hillside. It’s hilarious to watch. Gradually, as the afternoon progresses, more and more bovines gather at a particular spot on the hillside. They lie around in the sun, calmly chewing the cud or pottering about. More and more appear as we approach sundown and the visitation!

The visitation is a pick-up style Landrover which turns up each evening late afternoon or early evening and the farmer feeds the cows from its back. The excitement is obvious. They’re mooing and breaking out into a run following the Landrover so they get the first pickings. There is jostling, shoving and general mayhem while the farmer dispenses the food then, after he leaves, they polish off the final bits of their meal and disperse in all different directions until they reconvene the following evening.

Some will troop off down the street through the village, holding up the small amount of traffic we have by ambling along, taking a break to chew a shrub in a front garden or simply to stare out a motorist who can’t get past the group. There’s something really special about having to give way to a little group of cows, even though if you’re in a hurry it can be frustrating. Thankfully, I don’t find myself in a hurry all that often any more. The days of hurrying to the station to catch a train have long-gone for me.

While I was shooting them, they looked at me with interest but no alarm or hesitancy. I was struck again about what a fabulous world they inhabit and we share with them. This sunshine is obviously going to my head.