“After all,” Anne had said to Marilla once, “I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string.”
~ L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea
Yesterday was my first full day at home on the farm. We went for an early morning beach adventure, and enjoyed a good coffee, and then came home to attack the overgrown vegetable garden, mow the lawn (so much mowing!) and do what seemed like a thousand loads of laundry.
In the afternoon we loaded Harry and Bert onto the back of the ute and drove down to the river paddocks to check the feed (in farmer speak that means length and quantity of grass) and see if we could spot any of the new baby calves.
Bert (our red dog) is feeling much better. You can still see the lump under his jaw, but it has shrunk right down and hopefully it will disappear altogether without the need for surgery. Fingers crossed!
One of our Droughtmaster mums immediately brought her young calf over for us to take a look. In the background you can just see a Murray Grey mum (the white cow) racing up the hill towards us too. We wondered what her hurry was…
In the next picture you can see a second little grey calf. She’d been hiding in the grass having a sleep and we almost walked on top of her.The white cow is her very protective mum.
While the mums hovered over their babies, Daisy Mae popped over to say hello and to check if we had any hay or other cow-type tasty treats. Isn’t she looking big and beautiful? She has all the curiosity of a young teenager, and she still likes to play with Harry and Bert out in the paddock. We caught the three of them chasing magpies yesterday morning. Crazy things!
All of these new calves were fathered by Red Bull, who has been doing a terrific job. It’s hard to believe he’s a dad already. It seems like only yesterday that he was just a little calf himself.
We finished the day by taking the dogs for a quick dip in the river. We didn’t see any platypus but there were tiny blue dragonflies everywhere, lending the afternoon a very magical feel.
