Pix Of The Day: Grey Turning Red Just For You
CREDITS: © Ann Bowker/Mad About Mountains MAP: Keswick and Dockwray.
When clicked, thumbnails popup enlarged versions of the images.

If you followed the link to a John Peel story from yesterday's Herdwick picture, you may be confused to see today's red sheep. Even a Herdwick ewe likes to look her best, especially in the Herdwick beauty parade at Keswick Show, in northwest England's Lake District.

The effect is achieved using special beauty products, such as those manufactured by Battles, who rejoice in the full name of Battle, Hayward & Bower Limited. The original red color was known as 'rudd' and was made from a paste using the local red sandstone, traditionally also used to redden the steps at house doorways. Beautiful products, made of fine local Herdwick wool, may be obtained from Helvellyn Herdwicks, where you will also find more information. The Ruskin Museum has a Herdwick page.

An article in a local area magazine, Cumbria Life, entitled 'Herdwick - the hardiest of them all', quotes Derick & Jean Wilson, of Penfold Farm, Dockray, near Ullswater, who run a flock of 800 Herdwick ewes, "You wash their faces and legs, so that they are as white as possible," says Derick, "and then put Herdwick show red on their backs; the red is a tradition in these parts when showing Herdwick sheep. Nothing looks nicer than a Herdwick ready for showing; they look absolutely beautiful."

In addition to glamorous Herdwick ewes, Ann Bowker's web page has pictures of the sheep judging (the mountain behind is Skiddaw, the town of Keswick's local signature mountain), rosette winning Herdwick tups (an old word derived from the Norse, which indicates a male sheep), men in brightly patterned skirts squeezing music from pigs' skins and bladders, and boys in white tights with their velvet knickers donned as over garments, embracing each other in a such a way that it would probably be considered illegal in many less liberal jurisdictions.

There are days when I despair of my former countrymen!

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On This Day In 2002: More Pictures from Space - Sat 28 Sep 2002

This is the extra picture provided by Dr. Jay Apt, as an addition to yesterday's feature. The picture shows another view of Mt. Everest taken from the international space station, and is also available as a high [1] resolution image, suitable for viewing on larger monitors. Jay has also provided a corrected version of the image, which may be viewed at normal [2] resolution, or at a higher [3] resolution, depending on the size of monitor you are using.

We thought visitors might also like to see a picture of Jay from his days as an astronaut. If you go to the OrbitExperience web site there are many more pictures, including some of Jay on the unscheduled space walk when the malfunctioning Gamma Ray Observatory had to be deployed manually. The web site also has a news section so you can keep up to date with current developments, and a 'This Week in Space' history of the exploration events. A very rich site, well worth a full investigation.

We would like to thank Dr. Apt for his kindness in allowing us to use his pictures and link to his web site, and for his help in preparing this feature.

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