Parting is such sweet sorrow

This morning I walked down our lane to deliver eggs to a neighbor. The fog in the valley below was oddly tinted; I realized that some fall color in the fields was shining through. A tree at the farm just above the fog is a bright red beacon; scattered leaves cling to the grapevines in the foreground.

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The volunteer cherry at our property's southwest corner still sports a few yellow leaves; some trees beyond hang on to tired brown rags.

Autumn is a litterer, but it is hard to hold it against her (him?) even with the extra work she creates.

I enjoyed these last vestiges of fall while I could. Wind and rain are moving in as I type; the landscape will look quite different by the end of the weekend. But green will remain, and the structural beauty of trees will be revealed for my admiration.

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I'll take six lambs with that tail and structure, please!

Now that his obsession with Sarai has ended, Nightcap is restless for the first time since his arrival. He is looking longingly at the sheep in the wooded lot to the west, but would not find much satisfaction with three wethers and a freemartin ewe, I'm afraid.

It's time for Nightcap to return home, just as soon as I can make arrangements with his owner. But what a perfect gentleman he has been during his stay here! He has been ever calm and gentle with the ewes and with me, although as a matter of policy I always carry a staff when I enter an area with a ram. The other day when I went to the back of the lot to check on Sarai, he stood in the middle of the lot and watched me. He remained there as I walked up to him, rubbed his chin (he wagged his tail in appreciation then, too), and walked out the gate. As far as I'm concerned, this ram has it all – fleece, conformation, breed characteristics, preferred horn genetics (homozygous polled), color (solid and moorit, both recessive) and last but definitely not least, temperament. If Franna ever decides to sell him, I'm afraid I'd HAVE to buy him!

That's it for now from . . .