Lambing season

Lambing season marks the imminent births on Robbie Dexter’s farm and brings practical work together with emotional strain. Its approach makes the animals’ vulnerability visible to Robbie just as he feels least able to control events in his personal life.

Approach and Farm Context

With lambing only a few weeks away, some of the ewes have become uncomfortable and listless. Robbie knows these signs from experience, but this year they do not bring their usual excitement. Instead, he fears what the coming births may hold, reading the farm’s approaching season alongside the feeling that his own life is spiralling beyond his control.

Memory and Anticipation

Robbie’s apprehension is sharpened by what happened the year before. After the vet had left, Polly Drayton stayed in the shed with two ewes whose lambs had been stillborn, remaining with them while they mourned. The memory makes lambing more than a routine farm event: it carries the possibility of loss and gives Robbie a concrete focus for his fears as Polly is in London, pregnant with his child.

Significance in the Plot

The season’s approach sets an agricultural timetable beside Robbie’s private uncertainty. He can tend the herd and prepare for the work ahead, but he cannot determine what will happen to Polly or their baby. Lambing season therefore concentrates the novel’s contrast between practical care, which can be undertaken day by day, and outcomes that remain outside a person’s control.