“Oh please don’t go. 
We’ll eat you up …
We love you so.”
And Max said
“NO.”
from Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak one of my favourite children’s books of all time. I never saw the movie, I loved the book that much. I have read it to children so many times I can read the entire book with my eyes closed, head on the pillow and still turn the pages at the right time.
Snow:
Lots of snow. Boo Loves the snow. 
He eats it up. Not so much TonTon.
Ton deals with the snow carefully and with a total lack of trust. He prefers a firm surface.
TonTon would rather be Some Where Else. In front of the fire for instance.
Christmas Owl guarded my snow shoes until the afternoon.. getting to the chook house is proving to be a knee high trial unless one is wearing the snow shoes.
Sheila would like to show you her bed, again.
In the night the snow trickled in through the cracks in the barn walls and dusted down onto her bed creating a 3D effect in a 1Dimensional digital world, so you can see how deep she makes her bed. Deep. Proud girl. I have been speaking with a man in Springfield, Illinois, who has the most beautiful Hereford boar. He knows more about AI and reluctant heats than I do. (though frankly that is not hard to do) He has a plan to bring Sheila into heat using chemical hormones and he will send me the semen on a courier. It is worth a crack. He said that at two years old (and no breeding) she will have stopped cycling. The man did not hold his punches, I do appreciate that.
How much faster can I learn? And how far behind the 8ball can I be. But as Linda says “You are alive. You are learning.”
Good morning. It is almost dawn. The sky is clear. It is -6F (-21C). No wind. Silent. When I awoke about an hour ago it was 4F. I still don’t know exactly why the temperature drops so fast towards dawn, trying to out run it and then will drop even further as the sun peeks through. Then skidding to a halt, lasooed by the suns weak early rays. . Some study needs to be done.
I hope you all have a lovely day.
Your friend on the farmy,
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
97 responses to “No shortage of Wild Things on the Farmy”
I know, I know! I know the answer to the coldest before the dawn conundrum! (And I get to be a show off) It’s because, after sunset and without the sun, the temperature drops and continues to drop and the Earth releases stored temperature from the day. By the dawn, a great deal of the stored heat of the previous day is gone, making the temperature the coldest, and then the sun comes out, but it still takes a fair few minutes to begin heating up the Earth and for the Earth to register the temperature increase. More minutes in the winter because the sun’s rays bounce off at a much more severe angle and also because the white of the snow doesn’t absorb the heat as well as the dark of the land. Then, the warmest part of the day is always around 3pm when there is a good deal of stored heat and just before the sun starts sending rays at deep angles to the ground and the whole cycle of cooling off starts all over again. 😀 (I know, I’m an insufferable know-it-all) 😀
Nah! – just a clever-clogs 🙂
I can relax today, now that I have learned something new. Thank you.
I love learning about the Earth and thank you for sharing your knowledge. This is what s so great about this site!
Thank you Veronica.. incoming radiation vs outgoing.And the coldest after the sun comes up as one struggles to overcome the other. But i have always felt there must be more to it. When we were managing orchards in NZ if a frost came down it was in a layer, we called these inversion layers, though i am not sure if that is the correct term, and we would use a helicopter flying over the trees to push the warmer layer back down into the cooler layer right at dawn when we knew it was going to get colder so it did not freeze the emerging fruit. So it has always seems to me that the cold layer of air has an influence on that last final drop before the sun has gathered the force to heat it up. Thank you for your lovely easy to understand explanation Veronica, it makes so much sense.. c
Absolutely spectacular shots C! Our Marmalade is so big now! Wonder how much bigger he will get. Oh my, what a story with Shelia – seems we all learn something new every day here on the farmy.
Stay warm and have a beautiful day.
🙂 Mandy xo
I remember hearing Maurice Sendak on a radio phone in programme. A woman rang in saying that every time she read “Where the Wild Things are” to her young child, the child had nightmares. Sendak replied ” What kind of sadist are you?”……such a neat reply. Love that cat and dog..they’re wonderful.
What an hilarious reply, i got a good laugh out of that one! I have a feeling that you must have the best dinner parties, with your dry wit and memory for the best lines.. c
Getting a pack for Boo is a great idea and will give him his own job to do. My daughter’s Great Pyrenees loves wearing his pack because it usually means they’re going to walk to the pet store where he will receive much admiration and many treats. Then he carries his own food home!
How cool that he carries his food home! I also have trouble in the summer as i seldom have pockets, so i can stash the important things for my day on his back, saves me walking back and forth. c
We are all learning witj you – and loving it! My two pups play together the same way as Boo and Marmalade – it’s lovely to watch isn’t it? Stunning snow shots 🙂 And thank you, my kindly neighbour tells me I have a package for you waiting for me in Spain….lovely, lovely miss c x
Oh good tanya. I am glad.. c
I love that book, too–the words and the art. I can’t stop looking at those photos of Boo and Marmie.
I just absolutely love reading your blog stories and seeing your farm photos. It makes me both jealous and happy. I know it is very hard running a farm and caring for all the animals, but sometimes I wish I were there to help you out with your chores just to get out of the city and be in nature. Beautiful snow and your puppies and piggy look happy.
I wish you were her to help me with farm chores too, esp today when it is still below 0.. c
Silly me, thinking the infertility issue was long gone for me, letting go and letting be, I find myself secretly pulling for Sheila. Surely with advances in medical technology and a better understanding of fertility issues, there is hope for Sheila.
I am getting my owl out of the storage building. I really enjoy these photos of yours, Christmas Owl guarding various items. Perhaps mine would be happier on the front porch too!
What I love are the slightly surprised looks on peoples faces until they realise it is a bobble headed owl! As to Sheila, the man felt fairly certain that we would get a shot at jump kicking her cycle, though we may have to do this every time. Though getting it done this one time would be fine with me, then we can breed her some company.. c
I love Boo holding Marmalade in his arms and the charming sequence –Marmalade slipping under the bed.
When I was “team teaching” reading, each morning my colleague would unlock the Reading Lab door with the words, “Let the wild rumpus begin!”
Excellent! This book is on our blood!! c
Goodmorning from the sunny north. Your snowshoe are called bear paws, at least up here, and they look nice. I find the traditional leather bindings to be far superior to the new quick release gadgetry. More secure, less likely to break and most importantly easily repaired or replaced. Two things to suggest; I don’t know how big you are so this set may be too small for you and it is important to make sure you adjust your bindings to that the toe of your boots swings freely through the hole in the frame under the toes. That way when you walk the snowshoes can swing away from your raised foot and stay more or less level with the surface you are walking on.
AH! Peter you have answered a very important question for me. I thought my foot had to be reach over that hole at the front. Having never seen anyone wear them i had no idea! Thank you, i shall have another go today!.. c
Oh and peter I went to your site. You are in Ontario! So far from me. But your bakery looks heavenly and what an excellent idea to send people tweets when the breads come out of the oven. Also i see your tutorial of sourdough croissants … this I have to try i am a fiend for them. Just as soon as i get another sourdough starter off my friend in chicago who got it from another friend in australia, i shall be back for those instructions! At the moment I use a kefir starter to make bread, I wonder if that would work?.. c
So you are using the snow shoes then. There’s a real trick to moving about in them isn’t there – mind you I bet yours are more fun being traditionally made ‘an all 🙂
I think learning the tricks is the trick, as usual i am trying to work out how to do it all by myself having never seen anyone walk in them before.. but there you are.. alive/learning.. c.
And alive to tell the take 🙂 I found a combination of shuffling, lifting my knees and kicking out….. ok that really doesn’t help does it!!!
[ Laugh ].. c
I never had that book as a child. We had a lot of things like Dr Seuss and all that, but never that one. Instead we had an amazingly charming little book called “Tales from Moomin Valley”, which is just about as spectacular and folksy as one could ever get. It’s full of really incredible stories from strange sorts of perspectives. If you ever get a chance to spy a copy, especially an older one; get it! It’s quite rare and to this day it’s one of my favorite books.
I will find it, although I have no children in the house I still collect childrens books and often find visiting children going through my shelves.. thank you!! c
While you’re looking for Moomin’ Tales…which I agree are wonderful…look for The Quiltmaker’s Gift. I read it so many times to my grandchildren and loved it so much they bought me my own copy. I know the story so well now I can tell it without the book, and did so many many times while travelling in India a couple of years ago….to groups of littlies on trains and railway stations and in roadside eateries and out in remote villages in the Himalayan foorhills…..they all loved it and would clamour “again, again”. A lovely book with wonderful illustrations and an easy to digest moral.
How delightful, you reading your book without a book to any little child who will stand still for a story, and in my experience almost every child will stand still for a story, you reciting this one across india is beautiful.. i will find it! c
You will love it I’m sure……wonderful animals with feelings who talk, like your piggie…..one of my favourite parts……..’when the bear opened his eyes and saw the old woman in his cave, he stood up tall and let out a ferocious growl, she looked at him sadly and shook her head. No wonder you’re so grouchy you’ve nothing but rocks for your head to rest on, bring me some pine needles and I’ll make you a big pillow with my shawl. No-one had ever been kind to the bear before”…….you’ll have to read the story now to find out why the old woman was in the bear’s cave 🙂
I did some poking around… The old ’68 version that my dad read to us when we were kids is quite expensive and hard to find but the ’98 reprint is fairly easy to find. Enjoy it! It’s quite the amazing set of tales and is worth the read even for an adult! It will really send your imagination running!
Thank you, I will find it for my collection!.. c
Cinders…those photos of Boo and Marmalade with the Wild Things narrative is brilliant…even better than the original…LOVE it! And the ones of Boo playing in the snow? Such joy from that dog in the face of winter. And such a contrast with Sheila in her big warmy bed in the face of winter…Both of them taking winter on in such opposite ways….warm, cold, warm, cold! 🙂 Ok, that doesn’t make any sense does it??
It makes sense to them though! Morning chris.. c
I also read Where the Wild Things are , and The Night Kitchen, over and over and over to our son Callum. On his 40th birthday I gave him Sendak’s first pop up book Mommy. We are equally mad for Mauice Sendak. V.
I have never seen this book.. Mommy, I shall look out for it! Morning V.. c
I love the relationship between Boo and the Kitty; I can not not read your blog; it’s a must, no matter how busy my morning is. I have now fallen in love with Sheila – yup, she’s my virtual pet, but I know she’s very real; and you my dear are one of the most awesome women on the planet. hugs
Sheila is very large and her teeth are very long.. and now I must go out and feed her a little lunch, it is way too cold today.. c