Caught betwixt and between.
Yesterday I saw this leaf hanging way up high, hanging by a thread in a tree where it does not even belong. Just visiting. As I was shooting it lifted and simply blew away.
Last night it was windy and one of the loft windows was not quite shut. Open a slither. The wind knew this and changed direction in the night creating quite the atmospheric whine and call through this tiniest of gaps.
I was up in the night, and I never turn lights on as I walk through the house, so it was very dark, there was only the slimmest of moons blowing the clouds. There had been the sounds of coyotes calling and scrapping earlier and I thought how much like the wind they sounded.
I looked out the big dark french doors in the kitchen, towards the barn, as I filled my glass with cold well water. We don’t have big exterior lights like most farms as they are a waste of energy and disrupt an animals sleeping cycle. So it should have been pitch black. But there was a light on out there. Right in the back of the barn. Weird. The howling got a wee bit eerier. I know I turned off the lights. My fear of fire in the barn is so vigilant it is physical. I watched the light for a minute sipping my water then decided to put on my big dressing gown, leggings, hattie and jacket over my nightie, find my gumboots and go out and turn the light off. All dressed up I went out onto the verandah and was putting my bare foot into a boot when I noticed that the light was off again. Had I imagined it? There was that eerie wind noise again, this time in the trees.
Well, I was dressed already so with my trusty torch, that will float without going off, if it falls out of your boat into the sea, TonTon and I went out to investigate. In the barn I switched the big overhead lights on and prowled about. The calves were sleeping, Big Dog thumped his tail from under his blankets, the sheep shuffled about and Daisy as usual was standing looking over her gate, patiently watching. Is it morning yet? The guineas peeped from the rafters, Houdini, her chicks so big now that she has to spread her wings to cover them all, which looked very uncomfortable, dipped her head in warning.
All seemed well.
I looked past Daisy at the switch for the back pen lights, which is just inside a side door. It was off. Though OFF in the US is the opposite of OFF in NZ. I can’t tell you how often I switch a light ON as I leave a room. ‘UP is OFF right?’ I asked TonTon rhetorically. All questions to animals are rhetorical. ‘Bedtime’ he said and left the barn.
So off went the big lights and back to the house we trudged. I took off my layers and back to the bedroom. A quick look out the window and the light was back ON! What? At this point I decided I was probably bonkers. Off the proverbial rocker. It was 3 am anyway, John would be up in an hour, he could check it on his way to work. I thought about going up to the loft and slamming that window shut but then forgot about it as I climbed into bed already falling back into sleep.
This morning the light was OFF again. John had not seen anything amiss.
I sat on the pile of straw and puzzled, watching the animals eat their morning hay. Then Daisy went out her back door walked around into her little paddock and looked back in at me through the side door. Of course. (lightbulb goes off (which means on) in my head -‘scuse the pun). Remember this photo of Daisy yesterday. Well, look above her left ear. You will see the bottom of the light switch. Below her chin is her favourite gate to open. We have not got around to changing the latch on that one, it will be fiddly, so I have heaved a whole lot of straw against it. But she plays with the latch anyway. It is her toy. 
As I watched her watching me, I realised that she must have been playing with the gate in the night (she just puts her nose under the hook and wacks up smartly, laughing at me I am sure). Then apparently she had spent quite some time trying to heave the gate open. The bales had shifted but not given in. This is the clean maternity pen, on the sunny side of the barn. It is out of bounds, it has to be kept scrupulously clean for newborns.
Then she must have got bored and begun to rub her head on the door jamb and was turning the light on and off, on and off. THAT COW! Also, you can see an enormous nail very close to the light switch. She must have been rubbing her head very carefully up and down on that light switch.
Now what do I do? Can you imagine the groans and shouts from the others in the barn, trying to get a decent nights sleep and Daisy playing with the lights. That Cow!
c
The Kitchen's Garden 
88 responses to “Strange lights in the night.”
Funny Cow! Glad you won’t be eating her eather!
I have a solution for your switch. Make a frame from scrap wood to attach around the switch’s cover. Her proportions will not allow her nose into the frame… If it happens again after that, then you’d better be setting up a night cam to catch the real culprit! LOL! ~ Lynda
That is a fantastic idea Pixal , that is exactly what I shall do! thank you..a nice easy solution.. c
Glad to be of service! ~ Lynda 😉
You know that cow thinks she is human don’t you? What will you do with her baby? t
Hi Miss T, well if it is a heifer and looks good she is already sold. She is a very well bred cow. But John may just countermand that order yet and decide to keep it. We will see. Of course if she throws a steer then we will call it Bobby. And then.. you know.. i will tell you not to get attached! c
What a mischievous girl she is. Those eyes just say “Who? Me?”
I know, she has perfected that look. naughty cow.. c
OMG, I thought I was going to hear another HarperFaulkner ghost story!
Cecilia, I absolutely love your writing. I love your photography. I love your life! (I love mine too, yes!)
I love your way with words “Open a slither” – does me in.
I need to visit your blog more often to breath its pure oxygen.
Hi Bela.. you and your own brand of cheerfulness and joy are always welcome. c
I just have to barge in here to say that I suspect C of breathing and/or producing more than just pure oxygen–a little helium too, maybe??? 😉
Who? me?… c
That smart, smart, funny, funny call. I was thinking we had a good ghost story going here.
No ghost story, not even a ghost cow, though if she ever comes a cropper I am sure she will haunt me! c
Ooops, spelling error there. That smart, smart, funny, funny COW!
A couple weeks ago my wife got up in the night, not turning on any lights. Comes back and gets me up saying either someone is in the house or is outside shining what looked to her like a red laser light on our stairway wall. She is freaked!
So I get up, no lights turned and arms and fists at the ready, to check it out. The light is gone and no one in the house, kids all asleep. Now I start turning on lights and re-checking everything, all okay. No one around and all secure. The only way a light gets on that wall is through the kitchen which has a window over the sink and one in the door. Probably just a flashing light/reflection from a passing emergency vehicle. She didn’t hear a siren.
Next night, at dark, before bed. I take my laser light outside and shine it in through the windows and my wife says it was just like that. Now the young kids are a bit nervous and we have to calm them. All was okay and my wife has to tell her story of last night.
I’m sticking to the emergency vehicle light theory.
A mystery.. an unsettling mystery though.. c
Wonderful! I must say that as soon as you mentioned Daisy, I thought … aaaha!
Exactly Miss Misks, she is an aaaha cow! c
I would not have been able to go back to sleep that night, C! Lights turning on and off with no known explanation? In the dark, dark, night…. No. I would have lain in my bed with the lamp on, reading a book and clutching a telephone (because of course I would call someone before being assaulted by the undead). Wowzers, Cecilia. That cow! Great post 🙂
I don’t know why i never thought to be afraid, I wander about in the dark out there all the time, checking stock for some reason or the other., the barn is a lovely place to be at night.. never spooky.. c
Daisy is the best…period!
she loves that you love her! c
Beautiful pictures…and a cow with a lot of character!
thank you i think i have a very spoilt cow! c
Wow I think you were brave to go investigate the mystery of the light. Glad you came to no harm and that it was Daisy who was turning it on and off. Your photo of the sun rising is beautiful.
I watch for the sunrise every morning, it is my bell to go to work.. The dogs would have been going crazy if there was a stranger out there, even a strange animal causes a furore so I knew i was ok.. I don’t get scared outside.. c
I postulate that the lights’ on/off positions are opposite between the US and NZ because NZ is upside down. “On” points to the North Pole. “Off” points to the south.
That must explain my dizziness!! c
I don’t think my day is complete without reading one of your amazing stories or seeing Ms Daisy. She is too adorable I tell ya.
She would be right at home looking through the windows into one of the gorgeous houses in your pages. In fact i think she would be quite the accessory! c
that cow indeed! The wind howling through any gap drives me bonkers – and we live in the windiest place known to man (or so I think!). Lovely sunrise pic 🙂
Well tandy I am very glad to know that there is somewhere windier than the prairies, You poor thing. When i first shifted here I was aghast at the maelstrom I had walked into. Though it is not always windy, thank goodness.. c