Sarah Spofforth McOuat's striking textured paintings really capture the spirit of her animal subjects.

Many of the residents of her mixed beef and sheep farm in Dunblane have modelled for her and produced some stunning portraits.

Hamish, who lives in the neighbouring farm, is "the Kate Moss of the Highland cow world," according to 33-year-old Sarah. "He always looks good even on a bad hair day."

Just to let you know - the countryside's favourite agony uncle, Farmer Frank, now has his own page on Farmers Weekly's website.

And for those of you on Twitter, you can follow him at @farmerfrankfw

If you're not familiar with him, here's an example of one of his responses. 

Q: I have started finding evidence of sexual congress on my allotment every Sunday morning. How should I respond this?

A: You could start by remembering to always pick vegetables on a Saturday.

Proof that you can never come to Farmers Weekly too young:

Thanks to FWispace user 'Trolivant' for their sense of humour and Photoshop skills. At least we hope it's Photoshop...

I love this picture by East Anglian photographer Justin Partyka:

The
It's one of many stand-out images in a new photo exhibition at the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) in Reading.

Collected together, Justin's pictures are intended to highlight how "traditional farming methods and knowledge still form a vital part of everyday life" and "explore the lives of those whose identity stems from a close relationship with the landscape."

Here's another from the collection:

All 
 

Coating healthy, green sprouts in naughty, sugar-filled chocolate sort of undoes the whole point of encouraging your kids to eat their veggies in the first place. But that's what one baker in Kent has done, and they're proving surprisingly popular.

Full story on the BBC.

Thanks to @Tyrells for flagging up this story on twitter.

Step 1: Get a rotovator
Step 2: Write the words 'Will you marry me?' into a field.
Step 3: Take your beloved to an adjoining hill
Step 4: Wait for them say yes. And possibly cry.

Thanks to Emma Monks who sent us this pic on behalf of her sister Sarah, whose boyfriend George Outhwaite masterminded the rotatvator proposal near his farm in North Yorkshire.

"Obviously she said yes - who wouldn't!" said Emma.

Seeing as we're now in Farmhouse Breakfast Week, here's a recipe from those nice people at the HGCA.

It's just one of a number of tasty and nutritious ideas you can find on the FBW website.

Breakfast Energy Bars

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Total time: 25 minutes

Serves: 12

Ingredients
100g butter
200g clear honey
200g rolled oats
150g mixed seeds
100g toasted flaked almonds
100g sultanas
50g ground almonds
2 tsp sesame seeds

How to make them
Preheat the oven to 180C, Gas Mark 4
Heat the butter and honey in a saucepan until the butter has melted.
Stir in the remaining ingredients except sesame seeds and press into a 22cm square baking tin
Sprinkle over the sesame seeds
Bake for 15 minutes until golden
Allow to cool slightly before cutting into 12 bars
Leave in the tin to cool completely before removing

Remember the Devon farmer who dyed his sheep orange in a bid to prevent rustling?

Well here are some in New Zealand that have been dyed pink.

He's back.

The countryside's favourite agony uncle, Farmer Frank, has been pontificating again.

Read his latest musings here.

Anyone hear Chris Evans's show this morning? The mystery guest was none other than Farmers Weekly Farmer Focus writer Mat Cole.

Matt - referred to by the show as "shepherd to the stars" - was asked to appear as a result of being the man who supplied the White Faced Dartmoor sheep for Spielberg's new film, War Horse.

You can listen to the interview on BBC iPlayer (you'll have to get in quick, though, because it'll probably only be on there for about a week). It's two hours and eight minutes in, here.

You can also read about another great initiative Mat's involved in, Dartmoor Farmers.

Spielberg, meanwhile, praised the beauty of the countryside in the locality. "I have never before, in my long eclectic career, been gifted with such an abundance of natural beauty as I experienced filming War Horse," he said. "And with two and a half weeks of extensive coverage of landscapes and skies, I hardly scratched the surface of the visual opportunities that were offered to me."

Farmers could have an additional reason to follow the Olympics in future - there are calls for sheep shearing to be recognised as an Olympic sport.

Excuse my ignorance when it comes to  the ins and outs of rearing pigs, but is this common practice...?!