Moldy Oldies
Frozen. All day yesterday my world sat like a large silent hesitant animal, softly freezing into place. Shiny and undecided. Waiting.
Everything was crunchy with ice.
I am leaving these gloves on the clothesline for the whole winter. I am not sure what the experiment is but we can watch them you and I.
There was no sun and the cold air was quite still so the conditions did not change from dawn to dusk. The ice just grew around the branches and gates as though pulling itself from the very air. Yet it was kind of soft too – only just formed – shiny garden slushies. Noisy walking.
TonTons belly grew stalactites of mud and ice, dripping and freezing as we worked, everytime he lay on the ground to watch an animal for a moment he would warm and collect a little more moisture that would then freeze when he stood up, by the end of the day when I carried him through the house to his shower his belly crackled and pricked like a hedge-hogs. One then wonders about stalagmites that might grown upwards from the ground but there were none of these of course, everything sat on the verge of melting like un-shed tears, shining but not falling. Only Stalactit-ting.
I am amazed at the coats of these two unrelated heifers. Both are so long and so deep, Tia has to undergo a brushing every day as part of her gentling, short firm strokes like her mothers tongue. Her coat is so deep and thick the hay and debris gets caught. I have never raised an animal with Angus in her makeup before – but no grown Angus I have seen has had such a thick coat, it does not come from the Holstein side. But her parentage were prize winning animals – I might send this question to her breeder.
Middle sized pigs.
Yesterday I decided to wander down memory lane and look at some Moldy Oldies. This blog started on the 3rd of July 2011. Here are the posts from January 13 for the last five years. Take a lucky dip. You might find some old friends. I especially like reading the comments of these old posts.
January 2016 – Snowing
January 2015 – Travelling
January 2014 – Sheila
January 2013 – Sunrise
January 2012 – A blizzard (I liked this one)
The post in the header made me think that a benevolent New Zealand spirit who had been caught napping in the timber by the ice. His face exposed by an ancient carver of old with a frozen chisel. The post a relic of a longtime lost marae from my homeland. Come to watch over me – the lost one. Do you see his eyebrow? Raised into his soft old forehead?
I hope you have a lovely day.
Love celi
47 Comments on “Moldy Oldies”
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Poor TonTon – all that cold and wet followed by a bath!
I know – and he stands for the shower but HATES it. Such a filthy dog – i have never had such a filthy dog
…but he’s a very good dog too 😉
Love those gloves!
Ah yes – we will be witness to their decay – maybe I should tell the manufacturer that we have them hung up there to see how long they take to become TATTERS!
I’ve done this kind of experiment with fabric to see what sort of colours and marks I’d get, to use in art quilts. Burying rolled and tied fabric in the compost is a favourite, but also wrapping trees, or like your gloves, left on the clothsline.
Beautiful post … I don’t think you will be lost too long, one of us will be bound to find you 🙂 Laura
I think we are found right here – lovely isn’t it to have this place to meet in every morning.. c
I think the cold and the ice must have ignited a fire inside, your spirit I mean, not just in the room where you write. We expect Icy rain here today, possibly those frozen pellets of yours. I am calmed and warmd by your finding the beauty in these weathers and your telling it in such fresh and pleasant words. I hope to keep them with me as the day closes in.
It does hunker down – weather like that especially after the ice has fallen. Today we have sun!. c
Beautifully said Albert. I agree! Today’s post sang to our cold and wintery souls like a bard of old – and equally cold – times.
Lovely look back on the Farmy over the years.
Oh my that’s cold! Loved my wander down memory lane, and you were right , we did start blogging around the same time. Yesterday I received a note from wordpress telling me it was my 6 year anniversary!
YES! I wonder about that – whether there is an equation in the wordpress program like a search engine that directed us towards each other – there are quite a few I think who still interact with each others blogs and started within a year of each other.
The Old School Bloggers!!
Good to have The Ancient Watch in the post keeping an eye on you in storms & fair weather too. I enjoyed looking back through old Januaries. Thank you for linking us.
It is fun to look back isn’t it. one of the reasons why i write the blog – record keeping. c
Do you have to blow dry Tonton after his bath due to the cold or does he dry off by the fire?
He is allowed to sleep by the fire when he is clean – but that dog gets SO dirty.
Ugh, ice! That’s the part of winter I don’t enjoy at all. Our driveway is like a skating rink right now — so dangerous! Those piggies with their icicle fence!
you really are a wonder with words ..they slip gently from the tongue , so descriptive and yet so soft….not only are you a very good farmer, a beautiful lady but you are also greatly talented in so many ways…Loved the idea of looking back and the first one I did..I said 'I remember that' …time flies but memories stay forever..thank you so much
Sent: Friday, January 13, 2017 at 2:46 PM
What beautiful prose this morning! Those gloves will be a wonderful experiment of weathering in winter elements. Wind, sun, cold, and all of the phases of water will surely have the coating on those gloves peeling away by spring – or, they’ll be a testament or a great advertisement for the brand as a tough, all-weather glove! There is a lovely alone-ness in an ice-covered landscape, but oh the melody that follows in the days following with warmth and melting. Enjoy the silence… and the music.
Spoken like one of Nature’s true children. xx
Your gloves remind me of “Nutella Weather Cam” … I used to show the weather with a photo of the consistency of a spoon in a jar of Nutella. We don’t have heat so, the results were telling of our weather inside the house.
You would do very well in NZ you know – we only really heat one room in NZ – the room with the tele in it! c
And in Australia… our old aircon -currently- works only in the living room, which is where I’ve spent a very hot, now stormy arvo.
I love your guardian post. It looks like an old soul.
It is nice to have a spirit watching over you…beautiful image.
It is isn’t it = took me by surprise on my boundary walk last night. c
We’ve had ice four times this year, or maybe more, I’ve lost count. Currently on Day Three of a major snowstorm–one foot fell. Probably doesn’t sound like a lot to most people, but here in Portland it happens so rarely that the city grinds to a halt. It is beautiful, though! Loved browsing through your old posts from this day!
Portland is having a hell of a winter.. c
So, on top of all your other chores, you have to give TonTon a shower every night!!!!
I truly loved how poetically and beautifully written today’s post was. As i always tell you, you never fail to amaze me.
Here in western Massachusetts almost all the snow is gone – for the moment – and the grass is actually green in some parts. This is surely NOT like the winters we had here when I was a child. But Mother Nature probably has something up her sleeve… she’s lulling us into complacency, then we’re gonna get hit BAD !!! ; o )
Oh I agree – as the old codger says We will Pay for it! c
Love the old post: Kia mataara hoki Cecilia, kaitiaki, me te pupuri ia ia i te kino.
I want back to the Blizzard post, love how you describe the hush of the barn and its inhabitants while the storm raged outside. Stay safe, stay warm today Miss C.
We haven’t had a good storm like that in a long time.. c
I see his brow. The gloves are portenders of the weather. Does TonTon love his warm shower? Pouring rain her in Central Oz this morning! xx
TonTon sits in the shower with the same long suffering deeply wounded look he had when i put the jacket on him – but he is trained to shake under the towel and wait to be mostly dry then on my command he runs like a crazy thing to the mat by the fire and flings himself down. THEN he is a happy dog.. c
i havent written before , as you are such an amazing and busy woman . this was absolute poetry in both words and pictures, thank you. the first thing i do when i get home from work is bring in my mail and read your post before i do any other mail …. as your life calms me . thank you again .
Thank you Holly, that is such a lovely thing to say. It make everything worthwhile to hear this. c
oh my I hope his shower is a nice toasty warm one! Have a loverly day!
Yes it is nice and warm – I designed the shower for washing dogs in it so it works very well.. c
Saturday morning: hot, wet and blowy – decided to go back to the almost forgotten ‘mouldy’ period myself 🙂 ! Haven’t a clue how I discovered you: this was my protest period after having left FB and finding the first blogs which thrilled me: time August 2011 . . . . wonderful to see how many of us are still ‘here’ all these years later . . . more than curious what has happened in the interim to others liked: so hope all well . . .
Yup – there are very many here that have been reading and writing for years – it makes me very happy. c
If it did not make us feel ‘happy’ we would still be here . . . . second home and all that stuff 🙂 . . . .
The photo of the gloves is amazing! Really wonderful idea to leave them up and mark the changes 🙂
And the first comment was by Viv, wondering at your beautiful prose poem!
Beautiful! Freezing rain is lip gloss for the trees and fences! Dwight
I do see his raised eyebrow .. ! I look forward to watching those gloves. 😃