Monday 14 January 2013

A day, like any other.

The snow comes, silently, in the night. It is the right kind of snow, pretty and crisp and white, and the sun shines on it and makes it glitter.

I bless the new rug technology, as I so often do. The little herd is toasty and warm, huddled up to the ears in protective clothing. I do some gentle work with them, congratulate the pony wildly for high cleverness (through the scary yellow barrels, in a figure of eight, at liberty), give them extra rations of hay.

I stand for a bit, with Autumn and Red, who are just hanging out together like a couple of girlfriends, chewing the fat. Each offers me her head in turn, for scratches in the sweet spots. Their dear faces turn back and forth like metronomes. Occasionally, they touch noses, with gentle affection. It’s a particularly sweet thing with the filly, who is only three and has spent her life in a big herd. She’s not yet entirely convinced of the need for human endearments, unlike Red, who is goofy for love.

I read a bit of the internet. There are interesting articles from Nick Cohen, on gay marriage and prejudice, and more on the Julie Burchill row.

I do work.

I eat a cheese sandwich. Sometimes all I want in the world is a cheese sandwich. And not fancy cheese either, just the good old bog standard stuff I get in the Co-op. I’m such a cheap date.

I attempt to get my computer in some kind of order. This never works, because I always end up thinking that I shall just tidy up the photograph archive, and then spend hours gazing at adorable pictures of the animals.

I encounter MICE in the feed shed. They have somehow got themselves deep into one of the feed bins, and are jumping about doing crazed mouse acrobatics. I squeak, girlishly. Once they are dealt with, I turn to the Horse Talker. ‘Let us never speak of this again,’ I say. ‘The Pankhursts would not be impressed.’ We then discuss the merits of a feral cat. The problem is that they are only little field mice, really very sweet and harmless, but we cannot have them eating the precious equine food.

I walk the dog, and throw the ball for him, and we do some sit and stay and come. Stanley hurls himself about in the snow in high delight, then bounds back into the house, collapses on his sheepskin, and falls to profound sleep.

I look at the news. There is more arctic weather forecast; there is fighting in Mali; Britons did well at the Golden Globes. The BBC news page wins my prize for oddest question of the day: ‘Why do criminals smuggle garlic?’ Why indeed?

The light fades over the white land, turning a low, humming indigo. Soon, the moon will rise, and it shall be time to think about what to have for supper. Continuing my cheap date, cheese sandwich, faintly 1970 theme, I am tempted by a bit of scampi. Scampi in a basket (no one knows why it had to be in a basket) was one of the biggest treats of my childhood. Some things don’t change.

 

Today’s pictures:

After two days of no camera, there are rather a lot of photographs, because it was such a pretty day:

14 Jan 1

14 Jan 2

14 Jan 3

14 Jan 4

14 Jan 5

14 Jan 6

14 Jan 8-004

14 Jan 9-004

14 Jan 10-004

The little herd:

Myfanwy the Pony:

14 Jan 18

Autumn the Filly:

14 Jan 19

All together, waiting for breakfast:

14 Jan 20

Red the Mare, in her very, very smart and efficient new rug:

14 Jan 21-004

Stanley the Snow Dog:

14 Jan 25-004

14 Jan 26-004

Crazy jumping mice:

2013-01-14

The hill:

14 Jan 30-004

10 comments:

  1. Sounds like a good day. Cats and mice, it is a horrible mix, for the mice that is. I have two cats who play with them cruelly and then eat their heads. Very nasty. But food has to be protected. Love the photos today. Especially the chairs.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Such such soothing beauty....George is ill and we are a tired+tetchy house, this whole post is like a balm...I do so love this blog. Stunning photo of Myfanwy. Stunning photos all. Thank you so.
    Anne.x

    ReplyDelete
  3. As always, my girl Myfanwy pulls an "Angelina Jolie's left leg" and stuns us all with her photogenic awesomeness. LOVE.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Snowing here too, big fat flakes -- two kittens (newly neutered & just back from vets) crying to go out (not today), thinking if I could FedEx their mother (the outdoor semi-feral cat who turned up in our garden 18 months ago), you'd have your mouse (& everything else) catcher; she is THAT good (& impossible to catch; hates to be touched unless she's weaving between my legs as I prepare her food).
    The sky is almost as white as the ground.
    All I want to do is hibernate (with a grilled cheese sandwich!).
    You can take the woman out of Florida, you can't take Florida out of me....

    ReplyDelete
  5. myfanwy MUST have been a unicorn in a previous life...

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love your blog.... that is all

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ah Myfanwy, you are gorgeous.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I have to say: I'm worried for the mice. I want you to make the feed box securely anti-moused rather than torment them with cats and such. Their vulnerability breaks my heart.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Lovely comments, as always. For those of you with soft hearts: do NOT WORRY ABOUT THE MICE. We are far too soppy to do wholesale murder. Although I have been sending in Stanley the Dog to act as a deterrent...

    ReplyDelete
  10. I am so glad I can stop worrying about those damn mice. See: I even scrolled back to this post to see if you had offered reassurance, that's how absurd I can be. Sigh.

    ReplyDelete

Your comments give me great delight, so please do leave one.

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin