Sunflowers are not for sissies

A cheerful scene. Not autumnal at all. Though I am very fond of that word   – autumnal. Sunflowers are not for sissies.  And judging by yesterdays comments there are no sissies in our Fellowship. sunflowers-054 sunflowers-042

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Of course flowers would have been enough for a Sunday post.

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But the morning light was so beautiful yesterday. Our light source is getting lower in the sky.

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Good morning.

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It is Sunday here, though this means very little to the farmy animals. Queenie has come down with a nasty dose of conjunctivitis (pink eye) so the lady vet is sending over an antibiotic spray for her eyes which I will collect today. Queenie-044 I have brought her into the barn so that the direct sunlight does not hurt her eyes while she is being treated. Plus she needs to be separated from  Daisy as this is very contagious and if it runs untreated can result in blindness. We are going to have to watch out that Daisy does not get this either.  It is spread by flies and flies we certainly have in the summer.

You all have a lovely day.

your friend on the farmy, celi

68 responses to “Sunflowers are not for sissies”

  1. I once had a hereford bull that got pink eye. At that time the medicine was syringed straight into the eye so they made it a bright blue colour so that you could see if you had hit the spot as it were. The blue stuff stained dreadfully. One cool winters morning the bull, Thomas, came over the hill and out of the mist and the whole of one half of his head was stained blue, he looked just like Mel Gibson in Braveheart!

    • That must have given you pause! How on earth did you catch him. I had a steer with this a few years ago and after the first day he was onto me and was not going to be caught. This is another reason why I have put Queenie in a pen. Squirting this stuff in three times a day is going to be a trick! I am also looking for a homeopathic remedy to support their immune systems, Kids get conjunctivitis when they have colds and are a bit run down, there might be something else going on with Queenie for her to succumb so dramatically and quickly. c

      • As a kid I was always getting it – my Mum says some mornings she had to bathe my eyes open! But then my eyes have always been weak as far as everything makes them water – sun, wind, cold you name it and I starting crying!
        One of my kittens is just the same, and I have been treating him these past couple of weeks. Must be the change in seasons.
        Beautiful photos Celi, I love Sunflowers and try to grow a lot around my garden. The American Gold Finches love them when they start to seed.
        I baked your Apple and Custard Tart last night – what can I say? I was in heaven! It was a wet dark evening (it poured with rain all day) and I curled up with my kindle and balanced a plate with a huge piece of pie on the arm of the chair and stepped into paradise! Trouble is there is still a load left – so will be eating it for most meals the next few days LOL

        • Fruit and eggs! Perfect for every meal. John seldom shows much interest in eating left overs which i find WONDERFUL so i am presently chugging my way through an entire apple pie! (on its third day) ..wet dark evenings are perfect for a book and curling up chair.. c

  2. Earlier this summer my Molly milk cow had very runny squinty eyes all of a sudden one morning. Not sticky and it was clear stuff but definitely painful. As I was milking her I really did not want to use an antibiotic. I found an old remedy just using her own raw milk to wash her eyes with – did that about three or four times over a day or so and within 3 days she was totally back to normal…not sure if it was pink eye or just an irritant from the tall grass. A couple of years ago I also used coriander tea as an eye wash.

    • I might use that coriander tea for Daisy if i can get near to her, But Poor Old Queenie’s eye ball is already milky, messy and the eye is closed in pain, I don’t want to risk her losing the sight in it. c

    • It is not uncommon out here. VERY common in cattle in feed lots, so it is strange that the infection has appeared out here, the old people reckoned it came with the birds, it is generally understood to be spread by flies and we have had a terrible year for flies.

  3. Oh dear, poor Queenie..is it the same sort as humans can get….l hope that the medicine works well and quickly..
    Autumn is a beautiful time of year, but I love the early summer when the sunfloers are in full bloom and there are fields and fields of them .in the autumn they are decapitated and sent to be squashed for the oil but by then they are all brown abd dried up..nog quite as beautiful

    • I have thought of growing fields of them for feed for the pigs,(and the beauty of it) but not enough land for that kind of thing.. yes i need to be very careful about cleanliness when an infection like this turns up, any animal can get it.. c

  4. Poor Queenie, although she doesn’t look too bothered by her Pink Eye but then again, she’s a girl of few facial expressions! And as for light sources, it feels like we don’t have one at all as September has been gloomy since the get-go! Sunrise (what sun?) is getting later too now – very difficult to drag myself out of bed for breakfast duties I can tell you! have a lovely Sunday.
    Christine

  5. Hello again, computer/internet problems nearly caused me to put on straight jacket myself and take myself off to asylum … all caught up now and hopefully machine has recovered. Glad to see Egoli still around and hoping Queenie recovers soon. Must plant some sunflowers soon 🙂 Laura

    • Egoli is a lovely puss. He is either hunting or laying about in the barn.. I keep him well fed though so he does not wander into the arms of wild dogs. It is always a worry when the crops are high. I hate computer problems, yet still i get lulled into this false sense of security.. lovely to see you back, laura, have a lovely springy day.. c

  6. I love the old truck… and your animal photos are always heartwarming! I love working with lighting (backlighting mostly) and barn settings with the light streaming through, dust particles floating in the still air space. Thank you for sharing your beautiful days with us!

    • SNOW! Outrageous! It is cooler here but no real signs of autumn, flies are still here, fields are still growing, I think we have another couple of weeks of this too! Wonderful. Though I am watering again.. sigh.. c

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