DOUG'S IRISH SHEEP

D.R.Shoop writes: Just for fun.

I created this painting for my mother-in-law for Christmas because she’s an avid and skilled weaver.

I’m no pro by any stretch of the imagination and the photo of the painting was not properly lit to reveal it in actuality (I know, I know: sad for a pro photo)

It’s styled after a photo I took in 2000 out in the West of Ireland in County Galway, Connemara, north of the Village of Roundstone on a bog road.

Driving that road was a thrill at night after some Guinness; nothing but the reflective blue eyes of sheep!

I thought I’d share FWIW. Crypto-sheep.

PAUL BITAKARA'MIRE: The Manx Loaghtan

Looking like some distant relative of the Golden Fleece out of Jason and the Argonauts, this curious four-horned ruminant known as the Manx Loaghtan has wound its way from its ancient origins in Scotland, the Hebrides and Shetland Islands only to find itself with an ‘at risk’ designation and sheltered under the Protected Designation of Origin scheme owing to its appetising flesh, which has attained the gourmet status of a delicacy. With its population having dwindled to less than 1500 registered breeding females it can’t be that long before the only place you may be able to catch sight of one of these Isle of Man natives will be at your local zoo.

A cursory search of the web, though, turns up a few sites dedicated to the propagation and protection of the species, which should provide some hope that its potential fate may yet be some way off.

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday’s News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

On this day in 1952 Agatha Christie’s murder-mystery play The Mousetrap opened in the West end of London. It has since notched up over 24,000 performances and is the longest running play anywhere in the world. In the play’s final twist it is revealed that the murderer is in fact a West Highland terrier called Mimsy (not really, being a mystery fan (Diagnosis Murder FTW) I know better than to give out spoilers).
Anyway, cryptozoology news time:

Foreign lizards threat to our native species
Swans set sail
Snake spits out new species of chameleon at scientist's feet
World's oldest sheep, Lucky, dies in Australia at 23

What do you call a legless sheep?
Drunk. (and you were expecting me to say ‘a cloud’, see how I expertly subvert comic convention there…)

OLL LEWIS SENT THIS

Oll sent down this video of people in the Welsh hills doing strange things with sheep. I don't know how much of this is real, but it is pretty damn extraordinary. There is only one problem. According to YouTube, eight and a half million people have seen this video since it was posted in March, so the odds are that some - at least - of the bloggo readership have already seen it....