Strange lights in the night.

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!

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