Day 42, Sunday, October 6, 2019

This is our Airbnb in Hörsching, Austria.  After a lovely lazy morning Bob goes for a bike ride on a very old but still serviceable bike.  Our bnb has a lovely wild flower garden out front and there was a little bouquet of the pink roses on our table inside. The green door leads into an entry area, and the three smaller windows are in our apartment. The inside view of the two windows by the green door.  I think the shutters must be original.  The building is 400 years old and our apartment was originally a stable. This is the door opposite the green door, looking out to the back yard. The two big windows of our apartment from the back yard. The farm buildings are connected to the house.  The buildings form a square with the interior yard area you see here.  There is a short fence with a wide gate on one side of this yard.
Everywhere I look there is something interesting. I did get a bit of a shock meeting this fellow in one of the barns. There is a little sitting area if it gets warm enough for us to enjoy it. I spent the afternoon with my three new friends.  It took a while for them to get used to me, but they love bread!  A few slices helped convince them that I was pretty harmless. I spent a couple hours observing, drawing and taking lots of reference pictures.  These sheep do not have wool that is useful for spinning.  The fibres are too short, so they are raised for their meat.  I had never seen sheep with undocked tails before.  I had no ideas their tails were so long.  At times they looked quite dog like.  They are also very fidgety models! When Bob gets back from his ride he makes friends with this fellow but the other two want nothing to do with him.  This sheep is nine months old and the poor guy doesn’t realize he will be butchered soon. His new buddy follows Bob, hoping for just a bit more bread. Years ago I found an old copy of Henry Moore’s Sheep Sketchbook and I have wanted to draw sheep ever since.  I just had no idea how difficult they would be to sketch.  Seems like my idea of what a sheep should look like just isn’t what these sheep actually look like!