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
The Kitchen's Garden 
47 responses to “Moldy Oldies”
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. 😃