Sheep. Chocolate. Beer.

There are folks out there that like all three: sheep, chocolate and beer.



For those people there is Young's Double Chocolate Stout
It is made by Young's Brewery which has the logo with a ram (The Ram Brewery). This homepage starts of great with different sheep :-).


I have tasted this beer (actually stout) and it tastes great! Though half a liter is quite a lot for a little sheep like me. You can read an opinion or review on this beer. It's accompanied with more info on the beer and some backgrounds.

On the picture on the right - just took it with my cell phone, so sorry for the quality - I depicted myself with the bottle of Double Chocolate Stout. No big talk. I finished it all by myself!

News: Sheep with Rabies in Petting Zoo

I just read the article at nbc5i.com 'Rabid Petting Zoo Sheep Prompts Concern'. A sheep with rabies.

Quite unusual. A sheep with rabies.

How Could The Sheep Have Spread Rabies?
Quote:

According to TDH officials, rabies is most often transmitted by bites, but transmission can occur in other ways that allow the saliva from an infected animal to enter a person's bloodstream such as from a lick to a person's face or to fresh wounds or broken skin.

Transmission also can occur if a person kisses the infected animal on its face or lips.


Alright-e. I know some people with the odd habit of kissing plush toy sheep. No problem with that. You only might get a tiny bit of plush in your mouth.
But kissing real life sheep on the mouth? I prefer kissing plush toy sheep like myself!

Cartoon Sheep at the Banks of the Nile

Last year I've made a roundtrip through Egypt. From Luxor by cruiseship to Aswan on the Nile, a visit to Cairo and some diving in the Red Sea at Hurghada.

Whereas the most of Egypt is just a extremely dry desert, the banks of the Nile are green and covered with palm trees.

On this trip I made - of course - loads of pictures. On the picture below you can see two of my cartoon friends standing on the banks of the Nile. Just saying hello to Cow (didn't see Chicken) and Donkey (didn't have the voice of Eddie Murphy).

Enjoy and just imagine yourself sitting there having a nice cup of fresh mint tea.

Bloody hot

Today it is bloody hot in the Netherlands. Lots of sunshine. Not the pleasant kind of hot. In the south of Egypt this hot (and hotter) is bearable because of the extremely low humidity.
Here we have high humidity and just a dirty feeling atmosphere...

I tried getting a cold shower. But it does not sort any effect: genuine wool does not take up the water, the drops just bounce off.
That's why I had trouble diving back in Egypt 2 years ago. I float because of all the air in my fleece.

Shaving my fleece is not an option. Shaving or shearing fluffy plush toy sheep is never a success. And it does not grow back.. :-(

Ten Sleepy Sheep

Well, the sheep on the picture are just adorably cute. That's why I posted it.

The image is the cover of the book 'Ten Sleepy Sheep' by Phyllis Root and Susan Gaber. For more details see Amazon.com.

Excellent Ming Dynasty Bronze Sheep Vase

I might spend some time on traveling and blogging about sheep. Spending time on sheep (other than herding them) is not new: in ancient China (Ming dynasty in the 15th and 16th century) they did more than making porcelain vases or lacquer boxes. They made sheep out of bronze.

An excellent bronze sheep vase from the Ming period for sale on eBay Australia. Auction closes in 2 days.



You might want to bid. ;-)
And if not: at least enjoy the pictures of this great piece of sheep art.
Just click the links below!

Ming Dynasty Bronze Sheep Vase - detail 1
Ming Dynasty Bronze Sheep Vase - detail 2
Ming Dynasty Bronze Sheep Vase - detail 3
Ming Dynasty Bronze Sheep Vase - detail 4
Ming Dynasty Bronze Sheep Vase - detail 5
Ming Dynasty Bronze Sheep Vase - detail 6
Ming Dynasty Bronze Sheep Vase - detail 7

Hitsuji

New Zealand, Scotland, Wales and Zakkestan (read the Martin Lodewijk comic Agent 327) are famous for their huge amount of sheep. They outnumber the population.
Not in Japan. Far too little sheep.

Nevertheless, THEY have a single character for sheep. New Zealand and the others don't.

So.

Sheep in Japanese is hitsuji (remember the 90's little program HitsuWin.exe? Cute bouncing sheep for your desktop screen).

This is the Kanji (character in 1 of the 3 writing systems in Japan) for hitsuji.



And - handy - the image includes the steps on how to write the kanji hitsuji. 7 strokes only.

Some other sheep related words: youmou for wool, youniku for mutton, hitsujikai for shepherd and kohitsuji for lamb.

Last year (2003) was a great year. It was the year of the sheep (hitsuji-doshi).

Sheep vs. Gravity Screensaver 1.08

Cool exploding sheep as screensaver, by Ross Horton.
"Don't try counting the sheep in this screensaver--they have way too much trouble with gravity. In Sheep vs. Gravity, the woolly guys bounce higher and higher until they finally explode into mutton on impact. This update adds a new install/uninstall function, and some of the internal settings have been tweaked to reduce the memory usage."


Sheep vs. Gravity Screensaver - ZDNet Downloads

Sheep at AllPosters.com

Want to buy a poster with a sheep on it? A nice replica of a sheepish artwork? You can try here: AllPosters.com - The World's Largest Poster and Print Store!. Even if you don't want to buy a poster, it is fun to browse around sheep depicted by a meriad of artists.

Pokemon Paradise - Drawing: Mareep

Of course everybody knows the Pokemon character Mareep, with its electrifying tail. Well, here's a Dutch drawing instruction on how to draw Mareep.
Pokemon Paradijs - Tekenen: Mareep
You probably always wanted to do this.

New friend Greyze

Since almost two weeks I have a new friend in my house. Greyze. Nice girl.


And quite fluffy and sweeet.

Sheep

Hi,

I am Youssouf, a fluffy little toy sheep. I am quite a world traveller and would like to share sheepish stuff with you. Sheep rule!