Gate, lamb and field

This is a recording featuring a very tame lamb and a creaky gate, heard at Burland Croft Trail; an amazing place run by Tommy and Mary Isbister. Tommy and Mary have been in Trondra since 1976, working and developing their crofts in a traditional way. Their main aim is to maintain native Shetland breeds of animals, poultry and crops, and to work with these animals and the environment in the tried-and-tested ways that sustained countless generations of Shetlanders in the past. The Burland Croft Trail is open all summer, and Mary and Tommy were incredibly helpful when I visited them, showing me around and introducing me to all their animals and also showing me some of the amazing knitwear produced by both Mary, Tommy and Mary's mothers, and their daughter, showing three generations of knitting and textile skill within one family. Tommy and Mary send their wool off to Jamieson & Smith to be scoured and spun, so it was beautiful to see the wool growing on the sheeps' backs. At Burland Croft Trail, there is a field with two very tame lambs in it for children visiting the croft to bottle-feed; it is one of those lambs that you can hear in this recording, along with the clunky gate that leads to its field. Recorded with EDIROL R-09.