Sunday, October 03, 2010

Kerbiriou billy


A venerable, if rather pompous and extremely smelly old gentleman. Not a permanent resident, but a visitor, like us, a paying guest also one might say, only his means of payment were, as it were, in kind.

'That will be the last of the goat cheese,' said Paul, as I spread the ambrosial product on my breakfast bread 'no more milk until next year now. The buc is here to make the babies.'

'When Paul came in after he'd brought him here,' said Yvette 'I told him to get out of the house until he's changed his clothes, he smelled so terrible.'

The funny thing is, although it's the nannies that give the milk to make the stuff, the billies smell like nothing so much as an very mature goat's cheese. 

Lovely beasts.  

~~~

Very busy with work now for a bit, so likely to be a bit scarce here and chez-vous.  Bear with, bear with.


11 comments:

the polish chick said...

i was in a little neighbourhood cheese shop the other day and overheard the salesgirl saying to a customer, "if you're not a fan of strong goat, let me recommend..." and i butted in with "a weak sheep"

personally, i love a strong goat.

Zhoen said...

Redolent with character, as well. Quite the rake, I assume.

Fire Bird said...

what a funny old goat!!

The Crow said...

Love the shot of himself smelling the wind, lip curled as far up and out as possible.

christopher said...

I often do not find the odors of animals stinky so much as rich and redolent.

Animal waste is another thing.

YourFireAnt said...

Lovely photographs. The faces ...so expressive. The textures and colors so rich.

T.

Kelly said...

A wonderful collection of pictures yet again. I returned from my mini-vacation and was too tired to post a few of the pictures so I am hoping to get some up and a little extended dialog about my experiences and revelations encountered on my trip.

Unknown said...

Like camels, goats have expressions too close to some human beings for comfort. But what character! I remember when the public was being persuaded to buy chlorophyll tablets to sweeten its breath that someone asked:
Why reeks the goat
On yonder hill
Who seems to dote
On chlorophyll?

Lucy said...

Thanks all.

The goat cheese at Kerbiriou is mild, though the late season one was stronger than it was in the spring. Tom prefers a weak sheep to a strong goat.

In fact he -the goat not Tom - seemed quite reticent when it came to rutting, and very polite and deferential to his ladies gnerally. When we went to say goodbye to Paul he was effecting yet more repairs and additions to the fortifications, as the she-goats, especially the pretty black and white youngster you can see in the bottom-middle photo, are terrible escapologists, and the goat pen is known as Alcatraz. One of them tried to push her way under the fence and Paul shouted at her and tapped her nose, at which point the billy rather officiously started rounding them up and butting at them as if to say 'yes, yes, quite, terrible aren't they. You naughty girls how many times have I told you...'

I hope he is asserting himself enough to do the business, or there won't be any cheese next year...

The lip-curling was possibly a bit of display for our benefit, especially when I walked past with Molly. 'Il fait des grimaces' they said, and made odd little noises when his harem was approached.

Sheila said...

He looks so old and wise!

Dick said...

Even these representations of a venerable old gentleman can't quite excise the sense of the diabolical. In that last small frame there is a hint of the mal oeil!