11 August 2026

My walk today included a detour through the grounds of the Gevaert Minne museum, closed and silent, where sheep got my attention.

The grass was mostly dead from drought, the wild flowers and weeds scrappy and sparse, but I liked the play of harsh sunlight and shade.

The fields kept for sheep to graze in spring and summer were scorched, the grass desiccated. Like a painting, I thought.

Not surprisingly there was only one lone sheep. (Or rather what was surprising was why only this one had been left behind with minimal grazing?)

She looked forlorn, though photogenic.

Here she is in black and white - my favourite of the photos I took today -

Agnus Dei. It made me think of the van Eyck brothers' Lam Gods.

We were able to see it for the first time since its restoration in Saint Bavo's, Gent, in July 2020 during a brief break in lockdown, let in masked and in Covid-controlled conditions. 

This was the close-up I took at the time of the original, startling human face that had been clumsily painted over for centuries. 

The human-ness of the van Eyck's lamb is riveting and moving. But I think I find equally moving the expression on this sheep's face below, that I caught between the fence wires in the same field in April this year, when lambing was in progress and the grass was lush from rain -