Yesterday was a snowy day but a very calm one. We seem to be drifting down into a sentient state, exacerbated by the inability to move about freely, where everything is felt and only just heard, like a song sung by an unnamed stranger far off down the road, its message just out of reach, its drifts of chorus carried by the colour of the sky. But no-one minds. Speech is scarce and measured. Chores handed over and shared with the ease of slinging a leg over a wire and ducking through a fence.
Animals move to and fro with the blunted doggedness of winter. Daisy’s mooing low is more contemplative than demanding as she sinks into that mellow late pregnant state, her belly heavy and all thoughts of wacking me with her big head far from her eyes.Though I am careful to push my hoods back and watch her out of the corner of my own eye when I clean her stall. You never can be sure with that cow, I don’t care how pregnant she is.
Hooves ring and clack on filthy ice covered yards. The crack of ice on the rooves. My boots treading through the shrill snow its dim squeak of protest no longer of any mind. When the snow first came I stuck to my pathways fearing to break into the pristine christmas fairytale perfectness. Wanting to keep it Good as long as I could. Now I break new paths often, because the treaded down ones are all packed down and icy now. Dangerous.
I read the forecast and it says bitter cold. I wonder if tomorrow they will write even more bitter cold or bitter-er cold. Bitter sounds so final. The bottom of the barrel bitter. This far and no further. Yet the bitter goes further. Not last night though, last night was only mildly bitter.
The cold lifted slightly yesterday morning, and there was not one breath of wind though a number of breaths of snow flakes. Blowing to and fro like the bellows of an old fashioned white baby powder puffer.
I asked the sheep to line up for you so you could compare sizes and help me judge whether Minty is pregnant or not.
Mama and Meadow lined up nicely but Minty as usual was not listening to instructions and Tilly was having a smoke in the corner. She is one of those teenagers!
So I went outside into the falling snow in the hopes that they would line up out there and we could have a look.
Minty is second and Meadow in last in this line up. I said, no girls we are not going to have Can Can practice. Meadow is way too pregnant for those kinds of shenanigans.
There is Meadow now.
And below is Minty. I managed to get everyone but Tilly (again) to face the camera but it is hard to tell if Minty is pregnant though, (she is in the foreground) lately she has been looking a bit stockier. I think.
I am watching closely.
I am making a calendar. Mainly because I should be writing. But I have always wanted to make a calender and every time I missed the deadline. Then yesterday I thought – why do I have to make a calender that starts in January. January is a rotten month. We will start in March. So it is called Sheila’s Spring to Spring Farmy Calender Starting in March. It is looking very pretty so far. Nothing like being busy on something when you should be busy on something else. I can make a few extra if anyone is interested.
Boo decided to lay about inside and chew the tail off a monkey and see what happens next. I am not sure if this is awful or funny. Ah well.
Dawn has come. I hope you all have a lovely day. Do you think these days will ever come back? (This what happens when I go looking through the old files for calendar shots!)
Your friend on the farm,
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
76 responses to “Meadow in the Snow”
Your writing is so captivating…I feel as though I am transported there, experiencing the cold and the blanketed sounds of the landscape and the farmy. Laughed out loud over Minty having a smoke. I can’t tell a thing about if she is pregnant or not.
Extra beautiful writing today1 Loved that shot of the four girls lined up….and yes please for a calendar! Would it be worth your while to sell them to make money for farmy food or equipment?
The can-can line up is priceless. We have had snow for three days, I don’t know how you do it for months!
At this stage of winter I generally console myself with looking at summer pictures and trying to will us closer to that time of plenty. As with you, it’s hard for me to believe that it will ever be like that again – but miraculously, sometime in May, when I’ve given up all hope, the burst of greenery starts and takes me by surprise.
Hee, hee … those girls lined up in their black stockings made me smile. What a winter you are having – one of those industrial strength northern winters. I hope it is in its last throes now and that milder weather heads your way.
A calendar would be wonderful! The weatherman up here called it “brutally bitter cold” the last time — not what he will call it today.
Yes, yes…put me down on the calendar list along with the book and do charge a fee for them…will most definitely help with the farmy expenses! I look at that last photo almost longingly….please summer…you can’t get here soon enough! But think of it this way…all that snow will put much needed moisture back into the soil and is protecting all the life underground….No consolation?…yeah, I didn’t think so! 🙂 C’MON SPRING!!
Plenty of snow here, but today the sun is shining and it’s over 20F (!!!) so the morning chores were a very leisurely activity, with lots of conversation and visiting.
Love the snap of that outlaw Tilly!
(Cecilia, I am posting this same comment two ways, in hopes one will make it through the mysterious pitfalls of the internet! Fingers crossed.)
there.. whatever you did .. do it again.. worked like a charm this time.. lovely to see you over this side Quinn.. c
I don’t know how in the world you got the 4 gals to line up! I can’t tell them apart either. And that Daisy is one tall gal.
If only you could get the bitter end….of winter
Oh, yes…a calendar for me, too, please. I also think that a year should start with Spring. Beginning of new life for the year makes sense to me. Sheep always fool ya. They like to wait until you are not looking and then have their lambs. Today is the warmest day we have had all winter. 38 degrees F. WOW! It almost feels like a heat wave. Storms are coming in now in the West…finally. I don’t care if we get snow or rain; we need any moisture so very badly. I had my cow run over top of me after I fell down face first in adobe mud (boots got stuck) with a flake of hay in my arms. Luckily the mud was soft and I was a lot younger. What a beautiful picture of summer! So inviting and cozy looking. Thank you
Funny, you hit a cord when deciding to start your new year in spring! I am a Baha’i (www.bahai.org), the latest of the world’s independent religions; basically an ocean of learning, but one must investigate this Faith themselves, with sharing from Baha’is, should they so wish. Cut to the Chase –
Esther – Our New Year starts March 21 – the Spring Equinox, and it’s called Naw Ruz!
I’m printing out your post as I want to share with my small group of Monday nite writers; heavenly language; by your standards of “are they pregnant,” I might fall under that edit; but my coat is not wooly, my body feels long and oblongish, and I’m hoping I can start walking again soon – big time! joy in the morning C – that’s what you are. e
What a joy that we are on the same spring/beginning page , in fact many of us are.. maybe we have a faith that does not have a name and we are all in it.. c
yes
A sheep line up
This is the year I am wishing I still owned crampons (they are spiky items you strap on your boots to help you walk safely on glaciers, old snowfields, and evil driveways).
I have them strapped to my gumboots!! c
All things have a season… your warm days will be back and be sweeter for the brutal bitter. On the other hand, we have been saying “it’s February already”… but although there are summer days still to come, a few nights have had hints of autumnal cool… It does seem the warmer months pass more quickly than those that are frozen not only in temperature but time.
I’d love a calendar although I’m rather along way away! But let me know if your producing one! 🙂