Goats Chillaxing

Every summer for hundreds of years goats (as well as sheep and cows) have been led up into the fertile grassy meadows of the mountains in Valdres to graze "and become fat". They are free to wander where they like, but come in to be milked twice a day. A "supervisor" goat with a bell round its neck leads the way and the others follow, though if they get lost, they can now, thanks to GPS, be fairly easily located. Unlike most sheep and cows– goats are very sociable and curious creatures, and are quite happy to come up and say hello, or allow one to get up close to take photographs, and though they are tremendous "poopers" their presence in the mountains is always charming -some motorists who have got stuck in front of them may of course disagree. Sadly, however, it seems that this is the last summer that the goats will be holidaying up here, due to the imposing demon of the EU who have come up with some kind of new rules to keep them away. Sad because they seem, like me, to be so content here. They certainly seem so in this picture. Location: Valdres, Norway