I very, very seldom go outside with the Camera House intending to take a specific shot to match an idea. In fact I never do that. My mind is usually quite empty as usual. So I take photos during the day as I see them, then load them into the post before dinner, then when I awake in the morning I write the words. And as you also know often the words have nothing to do with the photographs either. I just have more words in my head in the morning for some reason.
In fact sometimes I take a few different photographs throughout the day and then when I load them and look at them I am surprised that this memory was only this morning. By evening the mornings seem so far away.
So last night when I loaded the images from that day I found quite a few of Alex, the Dexter heifer.
She must have caught my eye more than once yesterday for some reason. She is getting a little rounder but so is everyone frankly. Have a look at Queenie’s Bobby a few images down. The other thing I am noticing with Alex is development in her udder. I can see teats now when I am sure I have not seen teats before. She is a heifer, she has not had a calf before and heifers have to actually grow an udder. Cows (who have had calves before) seem to fill up with milk in the last few weeks. I have noticed that heifers start to grow their udders a bit earlier. Sometimes up to four months earlier. Very, very slowly.
Alex was field bred to a Lowline Angus. So I have been given June as the month but no real date. The Lowline breed is interesting too. Another miniature and developed by the Australians. They are not milking cows like the Irish Dexters, they are just for beef. I will be interested to see her calf. If it is a heifer Carlos IV will have himself a little miniature herd.
Fat Bobby.
I was mucking out and tidying in the barn for a number of hours today – it was so warm – Lady practically leaned on the side of the barn watching me.
This is the culprit. Sheila is getting lazy with her toilet. She is unapologetic.
Today is still warm (above freezing is always warm in the winter) and so I am going to continue in the barn. There is some fierce cold coming so I want to get the kunekune bed ready. I am going to roll over that big blue pig house – the old fish tank that I cut a hole into. They can sleep IN it in their corner of the barn. That will keep Tane a lot warmer.
I hope you have a lovely day.
love celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
37 responses to “Alex – the Dexter”
Dexters are very cute and Queenie’s Bobby is a handsome chap too. Sheila’s adorable, as always 🙂
Alex is so cute, like a teddy bear. Sheila looks like she wants you to hurry up the mucking out, it is disturbing her nap.
Love them all 🙂 Laura
Everyday you help bringing a smile to my face : Yesterday the flying piggy and today it’s the cat sitting behind the wheel. Oh my! Kind of a nice circus you have here… So funny.
Still love the cheaky haircut of Alex. Do like to run my fingers through… – Love the barn shot with it’s wide open sky.
Glad that you help Tane getting warmer. – Have a beautiful day, Celi!
She’s a very pretty girl, that Alex. Her eyes are such an interesting colour in the photos – almost a greenish bronze, a sort of topaz colour. Darling Sheila is looking a little rumpled, quite a bad case of bed hair there, but the twinkle shines through despite being disturbed from her lovely nap.
Such lovely healthy animals. Have a great day Celi 😀
I’d rather clean up after animals than people. It’s very satisfying looking in a well swept building with the bedding neatly piled up. Quite an inviting bed sometimes too!
Fabulous sky in the shot of the barn.
This collection of photographs put together, shows a kind of family resemblence – notwithstanding that porcines, canines and bovines are not really related. I think it’s something to do with expression in the eyes from being cared for gently and sympathetically by friend Celie.
Kate C and I were chatting this morning, talking about your impending get together. We tried to find a collective noun for bloggers, and nothing was quite right. Jock and I were talking about this at lunch, and came up with a BLETHER OF BLOGGERS. What do you think?
Have a lovely day
love
ViV xox
Viv, for alliteration purposes a Blether of Bloggers is splendid! I had to check, and Google lists blether as a variant of blather. Are we really talking and talking and never saying anything of substance? I personally think that we manage to add great loads of insight and useful words here in the lounge. Not always mind you, but on average we are an informative group 🙂
Perhaps the Fellowship deserves the collective noun ‘A Discourse of Bloggers’. Not as wonderfully alliterative, but perfectly descriptive of how we go about our business in the Lounge of Comments!
Love it Kate! Makes us all sound nicely purposeful, which I think we are 🙂
I like the way we can talk peacefully and pleasantly to each other from wildly diverse points of view and positions in life without a hint of one-upmanship, sniping or ‘I-know-better’.
oh yes, just a hint of snipiness and I get my red pen out. It is very rare though.
The Fellowship of the Farmy has many names!
But first, last, always and forever The Fellowship!
What a rare sight, to see Sheila’s eyes, which are typically covered by those drooping ears. She does look rather put out, but accommodating to the interruption, just not as curious as the cows as she really has no care for your routines Miss C.
A nice warm winter day. What a treat! I love the expression on Sheila’s face as she gets housekeeping in to tidy up her room. All of the residents look healthy. Your animal husbandry/wifery is going well. A great start to the new year and I wish you continued success in 2016.
Here is is January 8th and above freezing! TOUCH WOOD, LOTS OF IT! We are up o 66 today and I see green grass all around our building here in Texas. I’m happy for the warmth, but I know winter will be here soon, but with Mom’s daily trips to radiation treatments – I really could SKIP the wet slippery stuff this year. (FYI: Mom is doing great even with the Chemo once weekly – 2 weeks down, 4 to go and she says she fell so much better than a month ago….touching more wood after that statement!)
CORRECTION: and she says she feels so much better (FEELS not FELL…. lordy me and my fingers)
Oh dear, now I’m totally confused about whether I’m a pig person or a cow person! They are all SO BEAUTIFUL! I cannot resist cow eyes, but I also cannot in any way shape or form resist Sheila. She is MAGNIFICENT!! (Someone should feature her in a book, wink wink.) xxx
Nudge Nudge! c
p.s. excuse me but the Bobby is a beauty. And such a photocopy of his dear Mommy.
A friend tomld me that his new year’s resolution is to pay attention each day, to look closely at the world and be open to its wonders. I was reminded of that conversation as I read here this morning. ‘m going to tell him about how you don’t go anywhere without camera house, and how later-on-looking (as we all get to do through the kitchensgarden windiw) can surprise you into thoughts and feelings. It certainly does that for me. So many of the images you post stay with me and enliven my day. I won’t send my friend a link to your site (yet)–he’s a city person, born and bred–but I will suggest the camera idea. (Although I think I know why you call it camera house, I won’t use that term but I’ll try to explain the idea. It’s a really good idea.)
Correction: “. . . about how you don’t go out with the intention of matching a picture with an idea” (pictures can stir ideas and feelings later, and preserve them–that’s what I got from your reflection)
yes.. my camera is a house that I carry..
Are you concerned about Sheila’s newest behavior? Or maybe she is feeling her age?
I think it is her age and also she is still is not happy with having to live with the Twins – miserably she is teaching the twins her new had habits – ROLL ON SUMMER! when they are all locked back outside..