We have lit the fire. But just for a few days. Last night and tonight are down below freezing. But then after the cold has killed off all my favourites (though the tomatoes are finished anyway and I picked the last of the aubergine and capsicums yesterday – I knew tomatoes were part of the nightshade family but did you know that capsicums and aubergines are as well ? – we eat a lot of nightshades) – anyway after the frosts the temperatures pop back up into the comfortable range again just in time for Hugo’s family to visit from France (next week).
But the upside of the cooler weather is that we can light the fire. However, only for a few days as I am as nervous about firewood as I am about hay. I can never have enough. NEVER, EVER. So the fire is only lit when it is ACTUALLY cold – otherwise I encourage people to put on some bloody clothes. Clothe the body instead of heating an entire house. Walking around in a T shirt and bare feet complaining about the cold is just Bonkers!
We managed one more cut of hay from the home alfalfa field. We brought it in yesterday. It is beautiful hay too. Not a lot but better than a poke in the eye. This field will be tilled, sown in a cover crop and the year after next we will sow it in alfalfa again. It flooded so badly this summer that a good third of the field (maybe more) is weeds now. It needs some recovery time. Which means of course that we will be planting another two acres of alfalfa across the way. My life is a jigsaw puzzle. Or maybe it is “my life AS a jigsaw piece!” We are all a piece of a puzzle.
The sunsets are extraordinary lately though, or maybe it is that I see them more often what with the days shortening and the colors of evening descending so rapidly. Lady Astor is floating in and out of the milking parlour very sweetly, Aunty Del and Queenie’s Bobby politely watching. The two calves Not so Difficult and Little cough quietly in their room and Naomi studies her grammar under the tree. 
I need to look back in the diary to count the days since Aunty’s last breeding, we need to be watching her behaviour 18 – 21 days from then. It will be fairly easy to see if she comes back into heat or not.
Speaking of evenings this evening we are having a family celebration so I will not be posting tomorrow. Unless something wonderful shows up that is! And that does happen you know – wonderful.
Have a lovely day.
Your friend on the farm
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
67 responses to “The Fire is burning”
“Naomi studies her grammar under the tree” made me laugh. I like pink skies! And I like your making plans for the fields, too. So good that everything works like it should.
Birthday, marriage, wedding anniversary – what ever celebration it is I wish you a lovley get-together and a beautiful Sunday!
Yes, Naomi studying her grammar got me, too. However, in the name of gender equality, does Naomi ever study her grampar? Sorry, couldn’t resist. Love, Gayle
Thank you Irmi!! we did.. c
🙂
lovely post- have a splendid day today-we certainly will miss you!
Morning Kathe – i hope you are having a good day too.. c
Gorgeous sunset photos! I love the colour of the sky at this time of year — bright blue frosty mornings.
Enjoy your family celebration tomorrow. 🙂
I think the sunsets get better when it is colder.. c
The birds against the sunset are beautiful. It all looks very peaceful. Very sweet. We are all jigsaw puzzles, as are our lives. I feel that often. Love from over here.
Love from here to there!! c
Beautiful sunsets Celi ..
Hi Julie I must pop over you must be getting some wonderful spring colour now!.. c
The weather is still unsettled .. Typical Auckland 😊
Enjoy your family time! Your photos are beautiful.
Thank you Jill I have a rich landscape for photographs here.. c
I hope something wonderful DOES happen, not because I expect a post but because you deserve wonderful things.
morning darling – wonderful – Full of wonder – we should all feel it once in a while.. c
That’s a great post.
As ‘The fire is burning’, your intrinsic positivity is seeping out from each word of your post.
I suppose it is all about ‘being in the moment’ and not allowing yesterday’s regrets and tomorrow’s concerns to come crowding in…….. Would you agree?
Shakti
This is very true Shakti — yes – have a great day.. c
Oh, how I miss the first fire of the season in a cooler climate…I may only get three or four fires a year here in Texas, and I savor each and every one.
I did not realise that Texas stayed that hot – gosh.. c
Parts of it do. Other parts get ice and snow like the plains. But where I am, you get cabin fever in the summers…
Beautiful pictures my sweet friend. Stay warm and have sweet piggy thoughts. XOXO – Bacon
Such beautiful sunsets they would be too. Oh how I do love autumn weather.
I woke at 2AM and it was 19F. Guess it’s time to clear the area around the woodstove. But I sure hope it warms up again – so much to do before winter!
I am so far behind reading posts!! I’ve been sick with upper respiratory infection, and we have been traveling to visit various family a large part of the last month… one of those trips was up north to Nebraska. I quite agree with you about the exceptional sunsets in the north/central Midwest this time of year. While I was visiting family, I so loved the evening sunsets – often with the vision of a combine churning up dust silhouetted in a spectacular orange-hued sunset. Your images are so beautiful! And oh how I wish we had a stove in the house. I still get the wonderful warmth and crackle of fires as I work in the woods during the winter months. I love running a small burn pile and sometimes of an evening on the weekend we sit around it until late in the night talking. 🙂