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description=A weekly newsletter of observations, field notes, ruminations and recommendations from writer Maggie MacKellar. Click to read The Sit Spot, by Maggie Mackellar, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.;
author=Maggie Mackellar;

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the sit spot maggie mackellar substack the sit spot subscribe sign in home archive about dispatches from the cumbrian countryside a guest sit spot maggie mackellar jul 21 2026 96 25 1 share my daughter as dedicated sit spotters know is a vet she s spent the majority of her short professional life in rural new south wales a year or so ago she resigned from north west vets in coonamble to hone her skills and see some country on the other side of the world like her mother she s a note taker and a romantic she found a job in cumbria uk amongst the becks and fells of william wordsworth and beatrice potter pandamonium a mostly print though they do have some digital stories rural newspaper published her journal entry in their last issue a first step in being australia s modern day answer to james herriot perhaps when i read it i thought it would be a beautiful sit spot so with pandemonium s permission i m publishing an extract i hope you enjoy it too not the site of the bogging but you get the idea dispatch from cumbria by arkie pickering i ve bogged the van in a drain it s not even a proper bogging more a frustrating wedging of a short wheelbase vehicle off the smallest lip of roadside verge accustomed to the clearance of a ute i ve forgotten the van s small tyres barely lift it ten centimetres off the road i was on my way to a farm to look at a sick sheep and have taken a turn too early google maps not realising the impossibility of such an instruction told me to turn around the van is pinned between thick hedgerows beyond caldbeck common stretches with the peak of high pike cutting into a thinning sky the colours are washed out the light weak but insistent frost and ice coat the winter foliage giving it a faint sparkle my breath makes clouds and as i lie on the asphalt assessing the situation the cold bites through my thermals it could not be more different than being bogged in a flood event west of coonamble or in bull dust on the side of those long stretches of dirt roads in the northern territory cars are starting to bank up either side of me unable to pass without risking the ditch opposite i ring the farmer to say i ll be twenty minutes late then i ring sarah and mike local farmers who ve become friends they arrive with a snap strap and greet my predicament with good natured cackling oh the gratitude i promise to return for a cuppa and to help out with sheep dipping the following weekend back on the road i follow the google pin and hope this is the correct farm there s a narrow opening in a tall dry stone wall covered with moss back home it would be obvious eg 30km past the creek turn right at the dead tree here the crofts farms appear stacked upon one another there are no street numbers only names low mill mill croft high mill little mill adopting the local greeting i call out hiya my accent confusingly antipodean a farmer immediately sticks his head round the corner of a byre a barn you re not from ere he says i pull on my waterproofs and wellies and offer a handshake the farmer seems momentarily taken aback by my presumption i m getting used to being called out to sick animals without knowing quite why farmers are seldom forthcoming over the phone preferring brief messages such as need a vet out cow badly today i think i m here to see a sheep and ask him what s wrong with it well i divent kna lass that s why i rang thee he replies his regional cumbrian dialect rolling thick off his tongue t old yow ower theer ist bad fettle lass tis a la al bit slavery rund its gob so as nut sure what s ailing it i ve already lost one this morning i blink i ve lent t old lass against the yat so she s not laid flat oot she s off her legs like and a bit loose of her muck if ya wanna ga o er and tek a gander at her there s a moment of silence while i translate that the old t old ewe yow is down drooling and a bit scoured and he s already lost one from similar symptoms sometimes i wonder if they put the accent on a bit thicker than necessary the ewe is not in a good way i can hear her grinding her teeth in pain and she has scratched raw patches into the damp earth i look around for some kind of explanation the field looks lush enough blanketed in green but there s little nutrition in the short grass most here winter their stock indoors behind the dry stone wall the pasture backs onto woodland dense with undergrowth i don t recognise the plants and ask whether the sheep can reach the trees aye they like it up there when the weather comes in the ewe begins to froth green foam drips from her mouth beyond the yard the garden presses into the woods old trees two large yews to keep the witches out and perhaps a tangle of rhododendrons there wouldn t be any rhododendrons up there i ask pointing to the woods aye there s a bit that ran away from the garden it s unusual to see an old sheep eat silly things but when the grass available is pretty fine they d be tempted to forage rhododendron is toxic and i don t hold much hope for the old girl if my theory is correct i ask if i can autopsy the ewe he lost earlier when i cut into her i find the telltale green leaves sitting in the rumen i am learning the plants and diseases of this place at home i treated snake bites wounds from feral pigs and rat bait poisoning here i diagnose acorn toxicity perform caesareans on sheep and meet liver fluke with increasing familiarity i ask the farmer what he would like to do in my mind the question is whether he wants to put the ewe down and how he looks at me quizzically well fix her if ye can farmers here are hesitant to put animals down it is a shift from the veterinary work i knew at home where the cost benefit for treating animals is always present here perhaps because herds are small there is often a willingness to give them a go i think i like the softness though it takes some getting used to i worry i come across as harsh when my intention is pragmatism euthanasia is a privilege i have seen too many animals die slowly when suffering could have been spared yet giving animals the benefit of the doubt has its rewards the week before i performed a caesarean on a ewe whose twisted uterus had also looped her small intestine the uterus had ruptured the lamb was dead and the guts were an unhealthy shade of purple but upon untwisting them the colour came back unexpectedly the blood supply hadn t been cut off for too long i stitched her up and we the farmer and i dosed her up on a healthy concoction of medication and prayers i left her with the farmer on the proviso he d make the tough decision if she started going down hill he never had to make the call i return to the van to see what can be done for the sick ewe short of surgery or gastric lavage the farmer is not keen on either we administer fluids and a load of charcoal for its toxin binding capabilities and i dose or doze as the farmer says her with a healthy amount of pain relief i wish i was giving her a bullet but we give her a chance sheep have been known to pull through if they haven t ingested too much of a poison i scrub my wellies while the farmer goes to get his dog to pull the sheep out of this field and move them indoors away from the access to the rhododendron and onto some hay and silage i open the door to the van and look back the ewe who was on death s door a moment ago gets wobbly to her feet optimistically i cross my fingers she ll be right i say aye the farmer replies she ll be reet by arkie p a few other things reading kris kneen rite of spring about a couple who in an attempt to save their relationship become lighthouse caretakers on an island off tasmania apparently it gets quite erotic with kelp but so far i m loving the descriptions of arrival and setting up in the cottage here s a proper review naomi parry duncan musquito we will have signed copies after next tuesday i m really looking forward to talking with naomi at launceston library about her richly researched and beautifully written biography of the warrior musquito tickets here this essay what science knows about grief was fascinating i related hard well not the e m d r which maybe i should try to how she writes about sudden death while adjusting to being a parent listening a conversation with terry tempest williams mostly i ve been living this week i drove south met up with my goat friends we had a sauna i was in the ocean as the sun set we walked and talked and dipped then we ate and laughed and in the morning we walked and talked and dipped again it was worth the six hour round trip and the chaos of none of the weekend chores done some of us out in the glistening sea 96 25 1 share marking time maggie mackellar jul 14 24 6 ballooning spiders and fresh starts maggie mackellar jul 7 23 1 2 more contour lines maggie mackellar jun 30 20 2 postcard from the bay maggie mackellar jun 23 20 3 loading more posts 2026 maggie mackellar privacy terms collection notice start your substack get the app substack is the home for great 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