Thread #106: Jim’s in a jam, Peggy’s made a pickle and Lexi is blooming - sounds like the entries are lining up for this year’s flower and produce show, but who will be on the organising committee?

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads and @DadDadDad for being our resident statistician and keeping the ball rolling when Pseudo stepped back a bit.

All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed. We don't all agree on all points and most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you'd like to be Susan's best friend or other unusual views.

Spoilers: not on this thread, please. We don't wait for the omnibus to discuss the weeknight episodes, but we do try our best to avoid cross-contamination from www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3439443-keep-it-to-yourself-the-archers-spoilers-thread-4, where spoilers are positively welcomed!

For newer listeners, lurkers or those who just have no idea what we're talking about, DadDadDad has created this useful thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3557323-For-Archers-fans-a-guide-to-acronyms-on-the-long-running-discussion-threads-and-any-other-meta-thread-questions-you-may-have BOOP point for him! (See thread for explanation.)

Thanks to LillianGish for the title of this thread.

Holding episode tonight, I thought - not much progress on any current storyline. I was a touch surprised Natasha wasn't offended by the postnup idea but I suspect she's biding her time.

I can't think of a couple other than Kirstlip that doesn't have some sort of chemistry. Jill and Leonard maybe. Even not-a-couple Pip and Toe B have some.
Cursedy will not find happiness- she is ' settling ' with Fillip

I can't think of a couple other than Kirstlip that doesn't have some sort of chemistry. Jill and Leonard maybe. Cursedy will not find happiness- she is ' settling ' with Fillip

I agree, I think all the couples have at least an element of believability and some are really endearing. I think the portrayal of Jill and Leonard together is quite sweet, all that giggling like schoolchildren and excessively complimenting each other.

Agree the one exception is Kirsty and Philip. You can't picture them getting down and dirty can you?! They seem more like brother and sister. My gran often says that with couples there is always one who does the loving and one who consents to being loved. It's clear which is which with Kirstlip.

I have long aspired to have a relationship and a family life like David and Ruth's, it all seems so.... whatever the opposite of dysfunctional is!

I don't think Ruth and David have chemistry, any romantic stuff sounds absolutely staged. There was that weird disturbing period when David had chemistry with Pip. I think that's when I started reading this thread, I needed people who would understand the trauma.

I agree that at times David and Pip sound like a couple

There are different sorts of chemistry in relationships. Some are reactive and fizz, but others which IMO can result in more stable long term partnerships are more a matter of miscibility - mutually compatible. David and Ruth are in that category.

Regardless of whether poor old Phillip is offed, clearly Kirsty needs to get the wildlife trust job and whoever ends up winning Peggy's dosh will do so because they've got Kirsty on board for the other half of her time.

I listened late to episodes this week, so sorry if this has been raised before, but

Five-year-old Poppy was cuddling Peppa Pig with her arms round his neck and whispering in his ear?

WHAT?????

This is not a toy. It's an adult and weighs well over two hundred pounds. And rams are not sedate animals. What adult in his or her right mind would allow a small child to get that close to a Texel ram?

I did wonder about that, Asking!

But then, I’m a bit scared of sheep ...

Thanks for the new word Errol - this thread is always a great source of education!

birdsdestiny thread therapy

I like the sound of miscibility. Now I shall aspire to that with a large serving of fizz.

I 'm not a shepherd but Poppy has known and cared for Peppa since he was a tiny lamb, seen him, cuddled him regularly etc. wouldn't he be tame enough for her to cuddle him?

Don’t animals have to be of relatively high intelligence to be tamed? (As opposed to cows that have been bred to be docile?) I always feel sheep are wild things and don’t really form bonds with human beings.

I suppose it depends on how they've been raised Quater I know that sheep are more intelligent than we think. I'll never forget 2 sheep who had got out of our neighbour's field (they were friends on their own) and were standing in the tiny village road, one of them noticed us and began walking back, the other stayed in front of our car, until his or her mate came back and 'told' her to move and she followed back to their field!

I know someone who has some "rescue" sheep. He often posts videos of them, and they seem very friendly and tame. They love having their ears scratched, and sniff around his pockets, in the hope he's got a digestive biscuit"

I don't know about all of them, but he's got at least some of them when they were fully grown, so he didn't bond with them when they were lambs.

Hmm, meant to put a full stop after "biscuit", not ".

I know that sheep are more intelligent than we think.

I think I've told this tale before: We were once walking with our dog on a causeway next to a salt marsh. To our surprise, a part-grown lamb stood its ground on the path bleating at us as we approached. When we looked around we saw an upturned ewe, which thanks to TA I realised probably just needed righting so sent DH to do it. Sure enough, the lamb then ran off to join her.

I know we shouldn't anthropomorphise but it really did seem to be displaying gumption, both in wit and bravery, by asking humans for help.

A ram is not a sheep, though. Rams are not anything like as tractable as sheep, just as a bull, a boar or a stallion is not the same as the female of its species.

A tame sheep, yes, sure; a tame ram? I'd need convincing.

But then, I’m a bit scared of sheep

A few weeks ago I was walking through a field of wheat sheep when I noticed one of my laces needed retying. I sat down on a fallen tree trunk and did so. 2 sheep bravely got to within 4 feet of me and stopped. I said hello and held out my hand and one came over and had a sniff. I put my hand under her chin and gave her a scritch. She made a grunting noise and came closer, at which her friend came closer for her scritch. I had a very lovely 10 minutes stroking those sheep.

Re Poppy and Peppa Pig, he's known her all his life. If this was my DGD in this situation I'd have no qualms with them playing together.

Bottle fed lambs grow up to be more friendly with humans than if raised by their mothers. Texels are quite a chunky breed though and might be hard for a 5 year old to get her arms round even if it was amenable.

Peppa Pig is a ram, not a sheep. Rams are not sheep; they are the guardians of the flock, keepers of the territory, in their own minds. They wouldn't be asking for scritching under the chin; they'd be running you off their patch. (That is why the idea that a dog terrorised David's rams a few years back was so absurd. I'd back a ram against a dog any day.)

Substitute full-grown bull, boar, stallion or stag for ram, and would you be happy for a child (even a child who had reared the animal by hand, which Poppy did not do) to cuddle up to him and whisper in his ear? I wouldn't.

they are most impressive.

Asking Wouldn't the SWs have checked with their advisors, before allowing Poppy to treat a ram as a teddy bear?

my take was that susan is prone to exagerration

ppeatfruit, the trouble is that I simply no longer have any faith that the editorial team checks with anyone about whatever they think makes good der-ahma, and I have equally little faith that Gillian Richmond who wrote the script has ever been anywhere near a ram.

It isn't even consistent as a poor storyline; Poppy knows that Peppa Pig was being sold for stud not slaughter, so why was she sobbing all night about him making good lamb chops? They all ought to have reminded her that he's a ram and will be doing what rams do -- and she ought to know what that is if she has been that close to him all his life!

I was using the term "sheep", to denote the species, rather than gender. Some of the sheep he has are male. Maybe they've been castrated.

But I get your point about a breeding ram.

I doubt that the problem would have arisen with a castrated ram-lamb, because it wouldn't have been kept in the first place. Only a full ram was going to be worth rearing, from Ed's point of view.