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The creation of the Ullswater Virtual Art Gallery. The Friends of the Ullswater Way was created by the local community in 2016 to promote awareness of the culture and natural heritage around the Ullswater Way. It was granted charitable status in August 2019 and is entirely run by volunteers. I have been an active member of the Friends of the Ullswater Way (FOUW) since its inception in 2016 and a trustee since it became a charity in 2019. We commissioned a number of art installations in the early years, (see for example Jimmy Reynolds https://www.ullswaterheritage.org/heritage-knowledge-bank/inspired-by-ullswater/virtual-art-gallery/james-jimmy-reynolds a local sculptor). In the last few (Covid) years, the creation of the Heritage Knowledge Bank has pulled together history, natural history, memories and much more in one place in the amazing Heritage Knowledge Bank (https://www.ullswaterheritage.org/heritage-knowledge-bank). This year’s big project, the Ullswater year of Art and Landscape was launched this week with the unveiling of the Virtual Art Gallery. It has been a long time in the making from choosing the pictures to be featured, to gathering the permissions to use them, commissioning the talented Aerial Tours drone operator, Colin Aldred, creating a page for every artist, putting up posts to indicate where the easel was placed and attaching QR codes to them so that the viewer can compare the view today to the one painted, drawn or felted. You can take an aerial tour of the Ullswater valley and see the history and heritage highlighted, or you can choose to see where the 48 pictures were created ( https://app.lapentor.com/sphere/ullswater-pb-art). Once you are inspired to go and look, you will find the post with the QR code. I felted a number of landscapes in the first half of 2023 inspired by the title for the International Feltmakers Association 2023 exhibition: ‘My View.’ I interpreted the ‘view’ part fairly loosely as within 2 miles of my house in the Ullswater valley. The picture that was actually ‘my view’ is the ‘Winter Sunset: view from my window.’ The piece that I finally put into the exhibition was ‘Ullswater - Winter Sunrise,’ ( https://www.feltmakers.com/bwg_album/your-view-online-exhibition-2023/), from a photograph I took close to the Duke of Portland boathouse on one of my regular walks along the Ullswater Way from Bennethead to Pooley Bridge. Both of these pictures use wet felting and hand embroidery. More often my pictures are mostly needle felted. A local potter, Helen Radcliffe, was prompted by the idea of the ‘Ullswater year of art and landscape’ to rally 500 volunteers and create ten thousand ceramic daffodils to be sold for charity. Wordsworth’s most famous poem, ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud…’ was inspired by the daffodils in Glencoyne Bay, Ullswater. These wild daffodils are still there every spring and a few of the ceramic daffodils are still left and available to purchase (see https://tenthousanddaffodils.org). I experimented with felting daffodils intending to create a landscape with daffodils in the foreground. The first issue I encountered was that the yellow wool that I had bought was completely wrong for our (very pale) native daffodils. I therefore dyed my own yellow wool (Whiteface Woodland from Glencoyne farm very close to where the daffodils grow)) and made some very stiff felt with it in order for the daffodils to be three dimensional. I regularly use the footpath through Another Place Hotel as it is very close to where I live. The photograph I used for Ullswater - Spring Reflections was taken from this footpath (NY4528 2319). The other piece I have in the exhibition is Ullswater - Autumn reflections 2. The photograph that was the inspiration for the picture was taken shortly after sunrise on an October morning on the same route from Bennethead to Pooley Bridge along the Ullswater Way. The rose hips and leaves I have put in the foreground are hard to see in my photograph against the light from the lake so I lightened them and increased their number. All my pictures have a 3D element and, in this one, the framed picture has the rose leaves in their autumn colours overhanging the edge of the mat enhancing the 3D effect. Be inspired by our Virtual Art Gallery and the amazing aerial tours. See who was inspired by Ullswater between the 1700s and the present present day.

This year is the centenary of the Fell Pony Society, whose patron is Her Majesty the Queen. This year is also the Queen’s platinum Jubilee. Her 96th birthday photograph was Her Majesty with two of her Fell ponies. I have been invited to take part in the "Celebrating Fell Ponies' Centenary exhibition at The Old Courthouse, Shap in the summer of 2022. As you walk the Ullswater Way, you may be lucky enough to come across some of Cumbria’s fell ponies. Once widely used as working ponies, taking wool to market, pulling ploughs and working in the mines but there are now only about 6500 left worldwide and they are classified as ‘at risk’ by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust. You may spot them high up on the fells above Ullswater where they are being used for conservation grazing because they eat and trample in very different ways from sheep. The ancestor of the Cumbrian Fell pony (and the Dales pony) is the now-extinct Galloway. They originated on the England/Scotland border before the Romans arrived. The Vikings used Fell ponies to plough, pull sledges, as pack animals and to ride. The working animals were kept in the villages and the breeding stock lived up on the fells. From the 11th Century, fell ponies were used to carry fleeces, woollen goods, cheese, meat preserves and metal ores long distances. By the 13th Century this practice had evolved into pack trains, with the front pony wearing bells so that the others could follow it in poor weather. In the winter of 1492-3, when fine wool was one of Britains largest exports, 11 Kendal traders made 14 journeys to Southampton carrying cloth. These pack pony trains continued into the 20th Century. Fell Ponies were used as pit ponies where seams were deep enough. They were also used above ground in collieries for moving machinery. They transported copper, iron and lead ores from mines to smelting work in the north west and they carried iron and lead long distances across the north of England to Newcastle and returned with coal. The ponies also carried dairy products from the farms above the pits into towns. Even after the arrival canals and railways pack ponies remained essential for reaching remote communities. They were used to deliver mail to rural areas and are still used for carrying grouse panniers and stags down from moors. Today, Fell Ponies are being used again as driving ponies, most notably by the late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. The predominance of dark coloured genes means that it is relatively easy to find a matching pair. They have a great deal of stamina and are very sure footed, even on rough or marshy ground. Most recently, they have started to be used to carry footpath repair equipment to remote areas of the Lake District. Fix the Fells, a charity whose rangers and volunteers maintain the Lake District trails, have used them to carry fleeces to a high trail in the Langdales. Here the wool will be placed on a boggy area before trail materials are laid on top so the trail will float on the bog rather than sinking in to it. See a video about the project here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CwDEBcOxcE Fell ponies are most often a very dark brown or black with only very small amounts of white, such as a star on their forehead. However, every so often you see white (grey) ones. We know that the Cistercian monks at Furness Abbey traditionally rode white ponies. When Furness abbey fell victim to the dissolution of the monasteries in 1537, the ponies were released to the wild and merged with the wild Cumbrian Fell ponies. It is thought that this explains the grey fell ponies we see in the Lakes today. There are some on the fells above Aira Force. Fell ponies are increasingly valued for their role in conservation grazing on the fells. They help increase biodiversity, for example by controlling the spread of gorse and trampling the bracken to creating open ground where seeds can germinate. Fell ponies sometime sport a bristly moustache (see photo) which is thought to help them feel and differentiate different types of grass, especially when foraging in pour light. There is concern that fell ponies may lose their ability to survive year-round on the fells if future Stewardship Schemes result in them being removed from the fells for a number of months each winter. Foals born and raised on the fells are hardy enough to survive the Lake District winters and, like Herdwick sheep, they become hefted to their home area, learning the terrain from their mothers. There are worries that these traits are lost if the ponies are brought off the fells each winter, or have been bred away from the fells. The Fell Pony has been a part of the Ullswater Valley’s history since Roman times. They have helped shape our landscape and been an integral part of our cultural heritage, invaluable in the past for transporting both agricultural produce and mined materials. Today their role has changed, but it is essential that this endangered native breed is preserved. When you next see a fell pony, why not take a moment to remember their rich cultural heritage and the role they have played in shaping the landscape of the Cumbrian fells. Fell Pony Heritage Trust www.fpht.co.uk Rare Breeds Survival Trust https://www.rbst.org.uk/fell-pony Fell Pony Society http://www.fellponysociety.org.uk Quaker Tapestry Museum https://www.quaker-tapestry.co.uk

The Valais region of Switzerland follows the Rhone valley from its sources to Lake Geneva. The region is extremely mountainous and includes the iconic Matterhorn. The origin of the Valais Blacknose sheep is not entirely clear. Their name (Walliser Schwarznasenschaf) only dates from 1884, but there are mentions of them as far back as the fifteenth century. They are thought to belong to the Northern Short Tailed group of sheep that includes Shetland and Hebridean sheep in the UK. These breeds travelled all over Europe with the Vikings. The Valais Blacknose has been endangered more than once because fashions in sheep-breeding change (one of the reasons that the Rare Breeds Survival Trust exists). They have always been a dual purpose (meat and wool) breed but breeding to improve the wool has a detrimental effect on the meat and visa versa. Switzerland attempted to standardise their mountain sheep in the 1930s and older mountain breeds suffered accordingly. Diseases such as TB took their toll around the same time. It was not until the 1960s when the breed was officially recognised and they were admitted to the Swiss Sheep Breeding Association that their fortunes began to change. By the 1980s, there were almost 1000 and in 2013, over 17000. There are now around 13000 in Switzerland but these are threatened by the recent return of wolves to the region. In Switzerland a system of transhumance operates where the sheep are grazed high up in the mountains during the summer months and brought down to lower pastures in the winter, similar the the hefting of Herdwicks in Cumbria. The first Valais Blacknose sheep came to the UK in 2014 when they arrived in Northumberland. Being mountain sheep from a demanding environment, they coped well with their new home. They are large sheep, so very good for the meat trade, but their popularity is far more to do with their ‘teddy bear’ appearance and their nick name of ‘the cutest sheep in the world!' Once pictures of them hit social media when they appeared on the BBC Countryfile programme, their popularity increased dramatically. There are now flocks of them all over the United Kingdom and in Northern Ireland. A Welsh bred ram fetched a record 14 000 guineas in a Carlisle auction in 2021.They command a high price in the UK because Switzerland has banned their export. They are docile and easily tamed, despite their size, so are often kept as pets, even in their homeland. They also have the unusual trait of being able to breed all year round with is shared with only a few British breeds, the Portland and the Dorset breeds. I was inspired to create these portraits and write this blog by my neighbour acquiring the ram in the photos above. My particular interest is in their wool, which can grow 30cm in a year, but they are often shorn twice to prevent it reaching this length. The weight of wool that they produce in a year is around 4kg but it is categorised by British Wool as ‘carpet wool’ due to its coarseness (or high micron count of around 38). It has a lustre to it and beautiful loose locks but does not felt well due to it coarseness. What causes wool to felt is the interlocking of the overlapping scales on the surface of the wool. Fine wools, such as Shetland have many more scales per square millimetre than coarse wools and consequently felt much more easily. The portraits I have created have used some Valais wool, but I have found that my neighbour’s Valais x Dorset Down wool is finer and felts more easily.

The unusual and distinctive breed and its place in British wool production. There have been longwool breeds of sheep in Great Britain since the middle ages. At that time, British wool was a valuable commodity so the focus was on wool production. Consequently, these sheep were poor producers of lamb and mutton.The raw wool was exported to the weavers of Flanders in cities such as Bruges, Ghent and Ypes. From 13th-15th Century, wool was the backbone of the British economy (Shakespeare’s father was a wool trader) and the Lord Chancellor in the House of Lords still sits on the ‘woolsack’ stuffed with Cheviot wool. Vast numbers of sheep were kept for wool in the middle ages. From the 11th Century, Cumbrian Fell ponies were used to carry fleeces and woollen goods long distances. By the 13th Century this practice had evolved into pack trains, with the front pony wearing bells so that the others could follow in poor weather. In the winter of 1492-3, when fine wool was one of Britains largest exports, 11 Kendal traders made 14 journeys to Southampton carrying cloth. These pack pony trains continued into the 20th Century. Later on the landowners dealt directly with the Flemish merchants, cutting out the middle man. The merchants continued to buy from peasants who even had specially built balconies to display their wares. The wool trade was so lucrative that it was heavily taxed by cash-strapped monarchs. Edward III even went to war with France to protect the wool trade with Flanders (“The hundred years war” 1337-1453). The Flemish weavers fled to Britain and set up workshops all over the country. By the 15th Century, Britain was producing much more cloth. The wool trade and the huge profits to be made lead to the ‘Highland Clearances’ between 1750 and 1850, where landowners forcibly removed crofters in order to convert their mixed smallholdings into more sheep grazing. Many of these tenants fled to Canada and the United States It was the genius of Robert Bakewell (1725-95), of Dishley, Leicestershire who converted the medieval longwool (or Old English Leicester Longwool) into the longwool breeds of today. Robert Bakewell was a pioneer of selective breeding. Selective breeding was made easier by the concurrent enclosure movement where commons were carved up, fenced and divided between tenant and landowners. The quality of the sheep improved because there was less incentive to overstock. When everyone’s sheep were grazing together on commons, selective breeding was difficult and diseases spread quickly. Robert Bakewell used Teeswaters, Old English Leicester Longwool, Ryelands and other local sheep to create the “Improved Dishley Leicester.” This was a bigger, faster maturing breed addressing the demand for meat. Robert Bakewell leased his improved rams out, enabling him to test many more rams than he would have been able to alone, so he could make faster improvements. His Dishley Leicester was used to improve many other breeds and to create new one including the modern Leicester Longwool (see my previous blog on Leicester Longwools: https://www.ullswaterfeltart.com/post/leicester-longwool-sheep). Robert Bakewell gathered a following, the most famous of which were Matthew and George Culley. They used improved Dishley Leicester rams, Teeswaters and Cheviots to create the breed we call the Border Leicester. These are now regarded as “at risk” by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust. The Border Leicester has curly, beautiful lustrous wool and is used extensively as a crossing sire (see “Swaledales and the meat breeding pyramid” blog) ginving hybrid vigour to the lambs and improving the quality of the wool. The Wensleydale breed can be traced back to “Bluecap”, a ram born in North Yorkshire in 1839. He was a cross between a Dishley Leicester ram and a Teeswater ewe. He was a large ram with a nearly black skin and a fine white, longwool coat. The Wensleydale fleece is finer than the Border Leicester and prized by hand spinners. The Wensleydale is also extensively used as a crossing sire. When crossed with a Swaledale ewe, the result is a Masham. The Bluefaced Leicester came about at the end of the 19th Century by selecting Border Leicesters with dark skins and fine fleeces. Blue-skinned Wensleydales were also probably used. It was created as a ‘crossing breed.’ They are extensively use as the first cross in the meat-breeding pyramid, being crossed with Swaledales (amonst others) to produce the North Country Mule (see 'Swaledales and the sheep breeding pyramid' blog https://www.ullswaterfeltart.com/post/swaledale-sheep-and-the-sheep-breeding-pyramid). The dark skinned rams produced much finer wool in the North Country Mule than occurs in the Swaledale and their wool now makes up about 25% of wool bought by British Wool. The Bluefaced Leicester spread rapidly across Great Britain, replacing the Teeswater as a crossing sire. Today, the Bluefaced Leicester produces the majority of commercial breeding ewes in the UK. And then there were two In the last 30 years, there has been a divergence in the Bluefaced Leicester population. North Country Mule lambs have strikingly attractive facial markings. Bluefaced Leicester rams with the genes to produce these marking have been selectively bred and tend to have similar marking to their Mule offspring. The traditional Bluefaced Leicester has a blue head and white legs (see photograph at the top of this blog), whereas the modern Bluefaced Leicester has brown markings on its face and often brown legs too. Currently, they are still regarded as one breed. I love to needle felt Bluefaced Leicesters for two reasons: I can photograph them a few yards from my house and their wool is gorgeous to work with! My background colours are also Bluefaced Leicester bought from a talented local lady. https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Wool-Trades https://www.rbst.org.uk/border-leicester https://www.rbst.org.uk/wensleydale https://bflsheep.com/history-of-bfl-sheep/

The brown hare is thought to have been introduced by the Romans and is common on grassland in the Lake District. I see them in fields and on grass verges when I am out and about early in the morning but they are difficult to photograph because they can move at up to 45mph! Hares are the fastest mammal in the UK. There were once thought to be 4 million hares in UK, but latest estimates are around 700 000. Numbers have been affected by modern farming practices such as the removal of hedgerows, habitat destruction and illegal hare coursing. In the last century, farms have gone from being mixed to being much more specialised, no longer providing year round grazing for hares. Foxes, pesticides and modern farm machinery kill many hares. 97% of traditional hay meadows have been lost since the 1940s, being replaced by the much earlier cutting of silage. Silage may be cut more than once, also increasing leveret mortality. Hares can have 3-4 litters of young per year of between 2 and 4 leverets. Unlike rabbits, leverets are born with fur and their eyes open. Like other prey animals such as deer, they can run within minutes of being born. They do not live in burrows but rely on camouflage to keep them safe. The mother leaves them alone and hidden for most of the day in long grass or depressions in the ground so as not to draw attention to them. Hares are much larger than rabbits weighing in at 3-4kg, with longer hind legs and distinctive black tips to their ears. I am a member of the Hare Preservation Trust (http://hare-preservation-trust.com). As with my work with the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, my hare pictures are intended to raise awareness of the need to preserve hare habitat and increase awareness of their vulnerability. They are the only game species in England and Wales not protected by a closed season. Shoots as early as February may leave many leverets to starve to death. Hares are regarded as a pest on cereal crops, so culling can be extensive. I use alpaca fibre to create my hare portraits. This tends to be a solid colour but hares are brindled so I use dog brushes to combine 3-4 different colours of alpaca! See https://www.ullswaterfeltart.com/hares

Grey squirrels were introduced in Henbury, Cheshire in 1876. Since then, they have been gradually spreading and out-competing the native reds. The reds still hang on in isolated areas with a lot of local help. In the Ullswater valley, that help comes from the Penrith and District Red Squirrel Group http://www.penrithredsquirrels.org.uk, a local charity that employs red squirrel rangers to monitor red squirrels and cull greys across 650 square miles. The Latin name for a red squirrel is Sciurus vulgaris, meaning "shade tail." The picture below of a blonde-tailed squirrel in a classic squirrel pose, shows why this makes sense! Red squirrels thrive in coniferous woodland, eating spruce and pine seeds, but also eat all types of nuts, berries and fungi. Surprisingly, they are particularly fond of yew berries. Acorns are poisonous to red squirrels but not to greys who are often found in deciduous woodland and even eat acorns before they are ripe. Grey squirrels also take birds’ eggs and chicks and scavenge discarded picnic and takeaway debris. This ability to thrive on such variety has helped the greys to spread throughout the country, including in urban areas. Habitat destruction of woodland has contributed to the demise of the red squirrels. Red squirrel groups have developed many tactics for helping to remove grey squirrels. These include camera traps that monitor squirrel corridors, and feeders that can trap grey squirrels! The greys weigh twice as much as the reds, so a squirrel feeder that weighs the squirrel, trapping the grey and not the red is an ingenious solution where the two occur together! Many people in the Lake District put up squirrel feeders to encourage the red squirrels to visit. This additional food source helps them to survive lean periods and may enable them to have two litters of kits in a year instead of one (April and August). Kits are born blind and furless. By 7 weeks, they begin to venture from the nest and by 8 or 10 weeks, they are weaned. Baby coats are dark and fluffy, but once they are independent, they grow their adult coat. (My photographs show how much these adult coats can vary!) Red squirrels have no road sense and 10% of them are killed on the roads despite an abundance of “slow down red squirrels” signs put up by the Penrith and District Red Squirrel Group and their members. Another factor that has been helping the red squirrels is the resurgence of pine martin numbers. Pine martins and red squirrels evolved together so the red squirrels are aware of the threat. Grey squirrels often forage on the ground and are much larger, so are less able to escape to the outermost branches of the trees. Research from both Wales and Northern Ireland has shown that though the pine martins do predate red squirrels, they take a larger proportion of greys where the two occur together, particularly the juveniles and females. Though there are few pine martin sitings in Cumbria, they are just across the border in Scotland, so may spread southwards in the near future. In the meantime, locals continue to feed the reds and report grey sitings to the Penrith and District Red Squirrel Group. As a member of the Penrith and District Red Squirrel group, I regard my red squirrel pieces as an opportunity to raise awareness of the need to protect our endangered red squirrels. See https://www.ullswaterfeltart.com/red-squirrels

The rare Albion is a recent addition to the Rare Breeds Survival Trust Watchlist. I first came across Albion cows at High Lickbarrow farm near Windemere. These beautiful, docile dual-purpose animals had been left to the National Trust along with the farm in October 2015. Since then, they have been added to the Rare Breeds Survival Trust Watchlist in their ‘priority’ category, and some have found their way to Cotswold Farm Park, the home of Adam Henson of Countryfile fame, and the first RBST farm park (http://cotswoldfarmpark.co.uk/farming/animals-breeds/cattle/). January 1st 2021 was the centenary of the Blue Albion Cattle Society. They were once called “Bakewell Blues’” thought to be a cross between Welsh Blacks and Whitebred or dairy Shorthorns. Hybrid vigour is an important aspect of animal breeding where the offspring are larger, more vigorous and more fertile than either of the parents (it is essential to the sheep breeding pyramid (see Swaledales and the sheep breeding pyramid blog: https://www.ullswaterfeltart.com/post/swaledale-sheep-and-the-sheep-breeding-pyramid). Like the popular Blue Grey cattle of today, which are a cross between a Whitebred Shorthorn and a Black Galloway they do not breed true in the second generation. In 1921, these genetics were not fully understood and calves that were black or white (50% of all calves) were not registered, thereby limiting the gene pool. Outbreaks of foot and mouth disease in the 1920s and the 1960s, the depression in the 1920's and the modern trend towards single purpose (either meat or dairy) cows resulted in a severe decline in the Albions (the “blue” has been dropped to reflect the variety of colouring.) Albion cattle are now in the safe hands of the RBST, who have not allowed a British native breed to go extinct since their formation in 1973. High Lickbarrow continues to use them for conservation grazing on a farm that is an SSSI due to the careful management of the Bottomly family over many years. Unfortunately, High Lickbarrow is not open to he public. I have needle felted some Albion cattle using alpaca fibre as part of my RBST watchlist project. https://www.albioncattlesociety.co.uk https://www.rbst.org.uk/albion

A short history of the Exmoor pony and its uses today. Wild ponies crossed the land bridge from Alaska 130 thousand years ago. They spread throughout the British Isles to form the basis of all our native breeds Man came to Britain 100 thousand years ago and pony meat quickly became part of their diet. There are fossil remains of ponies in the Exmoor area dating back 50 000 years that bear a close resemblance to modern Exmoor ponies. They in turn are similar to the ancient wild horses of Mongolia the Przewalski’s horse. During the last ice, 10 000 years ago, the ponies became restricted to upland areas and the Hill pony breeds of Great Britain evolved. A distinguishing feature of the Exmoor pony is the light coloured ‘pangaré’ marking around the eyes, muzzle and belly. They are considered to be a primitive trait which is shared with the Przewalski’s horse When the Celts came to Britain they tamed some of the ponies to ride and pull chariots. There is archaeological evidence of ponies being used for transport as far back as 400BC. They are also recorded in the Domesday book of 1086. The Exmoor Pony Society was formed 100 years ago in 1921, but the ponies very early became extinct. “ A combination of owners away at war, gates left open, trigger-happy troops and ponies stolen to provide food for city dwellers left the population decimated, perhaps no more than fifty.” (https://www.exmoorponysociety.org.uk/articles/exmoor-pony-history/). Like other hill breeds, the Exmoor pony grows a thick, double-layered winter coat. The under-layer is dense and insulating; the upper layer is oily, shedding the rain and preventing the under-layer becoming waterlogged. Like other Hill Breeds such as the Fell Pony, the mane and toil are long and dense, helping to keep out the weather. In common with other native hill breeds, Exmoor ponies are now extensively used for conservation grazing. Their strong jaws and teeth allow them to macerate some of the toughest plants. As with many animals, they know what is best for them. They will nibble both the toughest grasses, thistles and gorse all helping to stimulate biodiversity. “The Exmoors may also be acting as facilitators for our cattle. Studies conducted in Africa have shown that donkeys and zebra improve the grazing for cattle by eating the toughest, thatchiest grasses, which creates opportunities for the sweeter, shorter, more tender grasses favoured by cattle”(https://knepp.co.uk/exmoor-ponie). Similarly, Fell ponies are used at Gowbarrow Hall Farm close to where I live: “Horses and ponies are grazers like cattle, but unlike cattle, sheep, goats and deer which are all ruminants, horses and ponies are not. They are consequently less able to digest the tough cellulose of mature grasses, preferring new young growth or old dried grasses, where the cellulose has already started to break down. Their different digestive systems and diet make their dung a unique contribution to the soil ecosystem, increasing the diversity of foods for dung beetles, fungi, bacteria, etc.” (https://wilderculture.com/ponies/). The Cumbria Wildlife Trust uses Exmoor ponies to graze Drumburgh Moss. (https://www.cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk/nature-reserves/drumburgh-moss). It is now a designated SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) and Cumbria Wildlife Trust are working to repair the damage caused by past decades of drainage and peat cutting, causing the peat bog ( a carbon sink) to become too dry. Exmoor ponies cope well with wet ground. The herd near High Row above Ullswater graze wet, boggy land that is a mass of cottongrass in June. I feel a particular affinity for Exmoor ponies, having been born and raised in Somerset. They are also very rewarding to needle felt because of their stunning markings. They are categorised as a ‘priority breed by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust so they became part of my Watchlist project.

A short history of Bagot goats, an ancient breed now at risk. Sir John Bagot of Blithfield in Staffordshire was the owner of the original herd of Bagot goats. They were managed as a feral herd in nearby Bagot Park. They survived for six centuries as a single isolated herd until, in the 1960s, Bagot Park was flooded to make a reservoir to provide water for Birmingham so the goats had to be moved. They are a very important breed historically, now classified as ‘at risk' by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust (https://www.rbst.org.uk/bagot-goat). Levens Hall in Cumbria (https://www.levenshall.co.uk), home of the Bagot family, has a semi-feral herd of Bagot goats in their parkland and a beautiful Bagot goat mosaic. There are a few theories on where the Bagot goats originally came from. One is that they were brought back from the crusades in North Africa by Ricard the Lion Heart and given to Lord Bagot by Richard II. Another theory is that they are native to Britain and were bred for their distinctive colouring. They are similar to other native breeds of Northern Europe such as the Icelandic goat, the Dutch Landrace and the Old Irish Goat. Another theory is that they originate in Portugal and came to Britain by boat with John of Gaunt (1340-1399 - the third of the five sons of Edward II) and his army when they returned from a battle in the Castile region. The Bagot goat is our only native goat adapted to the English lowland where they thrive outside all year. They have not been bred for improved meat or milk production so their ability to thrive in lowland Britain is due to natural selection alone. Nowadays, they are used for conservation grazing (or browsing as they are good at clearing scrub). The Norfolk Wildlife Trust is using Bagot goats to clear scrub at Cranwich Camp in the restoration of Heathland in an SSSI. Shugborough Farm park uses them to graze in an area with fragile archaeology. Their isolation has made them very self-reliant and unlikely to approach people, but they can become tame and often appear in farm parks such as the Lake District Wildlife Park (https://www.lakedistrictwildlifepark.co.uk) where many of my photographs were taken. Tom’s Farm at Nightingale Community Academy in London (https://www.facebook.com/tomsfarmOHCAT) and Cotswold Farm Park in Gloucestershire (https://cotswoldfarmpark.co.uk) also have Bagot goats. I have needle felted Bagot goat as part of my Rare Breeds Survival Trust Watchlist project using both wool and alpaca fibre. https://bagotgoats.co.uk/about-bagot-goats/ https://www.norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk/news-and-articles/blog/all-blog-posts/grazing-goats

A little bit about an at risk breed, Golden Guernsey goats. Golden goats have been known on the Channel Island of Guernsey for 200 years. However, there are goat bones in megalithic tombs on the island that date back 2000 years B.C! Guernsey was occupied by the Nazis during the WWII when most livestock was slaughtered. Miriam Milbourne hid a small herd of Golden Guernseys for several years and thus saved the breed. They were exported to Great Britain in 1965 and the Golden Guernsey Goat Society was formed in 1970. They are now classified as “at risk” by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust in their new 2021-22 Watchlist (https://www.rbst.org.uk/golden-guernsey) with 500-1000 animals. Many were lost in the 2001 outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the UK, but this did not affect the island of Guernsey where Peter and Mandy Girard keep Golden Guernseys for milk, yoghurt and cheese (https://channeleye.media/meet-the-producers-golden-guernsey-goat-farm/). The Golden Guernsey is an efficient producer of 2-3 litres of milk per day. The high butterfat content means that it is good for producing both cheese and yoghurt. The RBST describes them as “affectionate and docile” which may be why city farms and farm visitor centres keep them! Walby farm park near Carlisle has Golden Guernseys (https://www.facebook.com/WalbyFarmPark) as does Tom’s Farm at Nightingale Community Academy in London (https://www.facebook.com/tomsfarmOHCAT). My photographs were taken in both these places and the Cotswold Farm Park in Gloucestershire (https://www.facebook.com/CotswoldFarmParkLtd). Their coats can be any shade of gold, as can be seen from the photograph. Consequently, I have bought alpaca fibre in many different shades, much of it from Why Not Alpacas in Sedbergh (http://www.whynotalpacas.co.uk). I started needle felting Golden Guernseys after joining the Rare Breeds Survival Trust. I wanted to help to raise the profile of animals on their Watchlist without being able to keep them myself. 10% of my rare breed sales goes to RBST.

There are over 60 breeds of sheep in Great Britain and quite a few of them in the Ullswater valley. Last year, during the first lockdown the Friends of the Ullswater Way (www.ullswaterway.co.uk) , of which I am a trustee, created a lambing slideshow using my photographs. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY90-w-NNMc

A short piece about preparing for the International Feltmakers' Association annual exhibitions. I have been a member of the International Feltmakers’ Association for some years now. (https://www.feltmakers.com (“The International Feltmakers Association is a not for profit organisation established to promote felt in all its forms. We welcome everyone with an interest in feltmaking from the beginner to the professional.“). It has over 1000 members from around the world. In 2020, their annual exhibition was cancelled, and for the first time they held an online one. The title was “Kaleidoscope.” This, for me, conjured up bright colours and patterns, so not something that fitted with the faithful animal portraits I normally create. There is a herd of Cumbrian Fell ponies just the other side of Ullswater from where I live so I chose to felt a Fell pony photograph but play around with the colours. I was pleased with the result, but did not think that by itself it fitted the title of ‘Kaleidoscope.’ Once I had used the same photograph for two more Fell ponies in different colours, I felt that the three of them together with matching backgrounds might fit the theme so I submitted all three as one entry and was delighted when they were one of the 60 picked for the first online exhibition. Since then, I have had all three pictures put onto a single greetings card. The 2020 show was such a success and Covid19 is still wreaking havoc in our lives, so the International Feltmakers’ Association decided to organise a second online exhibition. This time the theme was “reconnect.” I am a member of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust and a committee member of the Cumbria Support group of RBST so for me, ‘reconnect’ meant reconnecting British farming with its traditional breeds. The Rare Breeds Survival Trust is a conservation charity (https://www.rbst.org.uk) whose mission it is to ensure that none of our native breeds of farm animal become extinct. It was founded in 1973 by Joe Henson to preserve native breeds; since then, no UK native breed has become extinct. 75 British native breeds went extinct in the preceding years of the twentieth century. I wish to play my part in reconnecting British farming with its traditional breeds. Since 2018 I have been needle felting my way through the Rare Breeds Survival Trust Watchlist to raise awareness of these important breeds. As I had created Fell ponies for the 2020 exhibition, I chose sheep, goats and cows for my three 2021 pieces. My choice of sheep was straightforward as I have North Ronaldsay wool from another member of the Cumbrian Support Group and they are important due to their strange diet! The DNA of the North Ronaldsay is 8000 years old but they are now classified as vulnerable by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust. Since 1832, North Ronaldsay sheep have thrived on a diet of seaweed because they are confined to the beach by a 1.8m high wall on the island of North Ronaldsay. We now know that ruminants that eat seaweed produce far less methane, which we would never have known without these sheep! I chose the Old English goat as it is a recent addition to the Watchlist and critically endangered. Before the 19th Century these goats were on every small-holding where a couple of goats efficiently provided both milk and meat just by eating whatever native flora was available. They are thought to have come across from Europe with the first farmers when there was still a land bridge. My choice of cow was more challenging as I have mostly only needle felted Highland cows. I experimented and created many practice pieces. The one I was most pleased with was the White Galloway so that became my final piece. The Galloway demonstrates the Rare Breeds Survival Trust motto ‘right breed, right place, right density.’ It is one of the world’s oldest breeds of cattle which has adapted to thrive in the cold, damp climate of the Galloway region of Scotland eating limited grasses and the roughest forage. They are hardy, long lived cattle with a shaggy coat that has a woolly undercoat for warmth and stiff guard hairs to shed the rain. They are smaller than some of the modern European beef cattle that need housing indoors over winter and feeding on imported concentrates. Winter feed costs for the Galloway are minimal because of their superior ability to thrive outside all year in the British landscape. The White Galloway is an efficient converter of a wide variety of native flora into beef that is low in both fat and saturated fat and high in Omega 3. In 2022, the title for the International Feltmakers exhibition was 'Flora and Fauna.' My inspiration was this lovely Herdwick lamb amongst foxgloves. Though Herdwicks are born black, they soon start to get their white faces, as seen here. The 2023 exhibition title was 'my view.' I had already created a few landscapes, but the title was the inspiration for creating some more and for me to introduce a 'landscapes' page. I submitted both these pictures. The online exhibitions of the International Feltmakers' Association can be viewed by following this link: https://www.feltmakers.com/online-exhibitions/