Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Photos and thoughts


Two days ago, I got an email from a stranger – a caring, considerate stranger. After a month-long silence on a friend's blog, she had learned her friend had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and was in hospital pending transfer to hospice. This stranger had gone through all the comments on her friend's blog to gather contact info and let us, her blogpals, know why the blog was silent and to ask us to pray for our common friend.

I had a card addressed to send today when I got another email; Nancy of High Plains Footprints died this morning. Instead of writing words of love and encouragement to her in my card, I wrote instead to her brother, to let him know that Nancy will be missed, and why.

Poof; just like that, someone is gone, and I am stunned and sad. Had Nancy's friend not investigated, then reached out to a broader community (bless her!), her followers would never know why Nancy's blog went silent. Several blogs I have followed over the years have become inactive; it always makes me wonder why. I miss them....

So thanks, those of you who comment. (I've changed the settings lately, hoping to make it easier for some who have reported difficulties leaving comments.) You honor me by your visits, and enrich my life when you reach out. I try to do the same. As one blogpal says at the end of every post, "Take care and be kind to one another." It matters. You matter. We all matter.

That's it for today from . . .

Sunday, March 27, 2016

A blessed weekend

Some flowers around the house:

Some flowers found in the woods (including my favorite!).

Grass, sheep, and lamby-pie:


Babette proves you can have lamb races all by yourself:


A pair of mourning doves who seem to be calling Boulderneigh home:

And most of all, "the Reason for the season."

Many things to be thankful for at . . .


Thursday, March 24, 2016

Fair warning to the winter-weary ;-)

Please don't "see red" when I show you our spring flowers,
and green grass. Just remember that when many of you are enjoying green grass this summer, ours will be brown and dry! For now, though, the only brown in my pasture are beautimus sheep. (Okay, and a little mud.)
Babette got her first outing with the ewe flock yesterday. See her there in the middle? Below you can just see her dark head in front of big sister Bree and behind Mom's neck (biggifying suggested).

The wide world and multiple sheep were a bit overwhelming to Babette and stressful to Vienna,

so Vienna took her Precious away to a "safer" spot.
Back in the fold during chores last night, I enticed a bouncy Babette with wiggly fingers. She sniffed and retreated, sniffed and retreated. Then she bopped close enough for my fingers to rub her shoulder. "Ahhh, what bliss is this?" This morning when I went in the nursery pen she walked right up, if still a little tentative, and asked, "Could I have some more of that blissful touching?" Of course, my pretty, of course!

Rejoicing at the beginning of a long and lasting relationship at . . .

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

My bright spot

I'm still working on getting good photos of Babette, but I did capture a couple cute shots of her yesterday.
She is bouncing around the corner pen, tall and straight and strong. She comes up to investigate my hand, although still uncertain about human touch. Soon, I'm sure, we will be fast friends. ;-)

That's it for today from . . .

Monday, March 21, 2016

Signs of spring

In some parts of the country, spring showers may bring spring flowers; here, they occur concurrently.
We can all get to feeling like this about the rain
Tahiti, the last of my daffodils to bloom
Here are some photos of Babette on day #2. I am very pleased with her structure and birth coat, although not with my photographic attempts to capture either.
iPhone photo

Yesterday we attended a Michael Card concert. Love his message-filled music! The flower-draped cross was another lovely symbol of spring.
The school for which the concert was a benefit is the one we are considering for Brian next year. Michael had the school's choral group sing backup for him on one of his most heartwrenchingly beautiful songs:


The seasons are marching on at . . .

Saturday, March 19, 2016

A Sabbath blessing

This morning Vienna was making me second-guess my predictions; by 4:30 p.m. she was cleaning up a strapping brown lamb! After this afternoon's memorial service, Rick and I drove home to quickly let the dogs out and check on Vienna before running back to town for a seminar (Brian was at Grandma's). When I saw the one lamb, we had to make a decision: wait and watch, interfere, or leave. When I went in and checked it out (it's a GIRL; yay!), it started suckling like it knew what it was doing, so we made the assumption that Vienna was done and left. That was confirmed a few hours later when we returned. So without further ado, here is Vienna with her musket daughter Babette ("my God is my vow"):

So. My lambing season is done with one. So strange that last year Sarai had twins and Vienna had triplets; this year, bred to the same ram, both ewes had big singles – too big, in Sarai's case. As the sole star of my 2016 lambing season, Babette will no doubt be tamed and treasured, fawned over and photographed. You've been warned! ;-)

That's it for today from . . .

Friday, March 18, 2016

Heads up

Tail up, actually.

Unlike Sarai, who wasn't fully bagged up or showing much change in her vulva when she lambed, Vienna is showing signs of popping soon. This morning I was thinking maybe by the end of the weekend; now I'm thinking maybe by the end of today.

Over the noon hour I turned the girls out on pasture to let them stretch their legs and enjoy the green grass, but no one was much interested. They mostly just hung out at the gate, and ran back into the fold as soon as I gave them access.
Vienna got the corner lambing jug. It would be very considerate of her to lamb today, as tomorrow we have church followed by an afternoon memorial service, and Sunday we have tickets to a Michael Card concert. But we'll have to take what comes when it comes.

Taking what comes is sometimes delightful.

Morning mountains courtesy of . . .



Thursday, March 17, 2016

Sunshine and Sarai

If you follow me on Instagram, you saw spring blooms shining in the sun today. Things are brighter in the Sheep Sheraton tonight, too. Sarai is well on her way to a full recovery, having regained her appetite and given up her placenta by last night. In spite of all we have put her through in the last 72 hours, she wanted attention tonight, so of course I obliged. ;-)

Before the sun broke through yesterday afternoon, Brian, Jackson, and I went for a three-mile walk up the hill and back for his PE class. There were so many lovely photo opps; I kept stopping and shooting, then running to catch up.

Today was lovely, but the leprechauns were ornery. How else to explain getting ZERO eggs for the first time since the Inkspots settled in at Boulderneigh? Or perhaps the girls were all too busy sunbathing to bother with egg-laying. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny again, then it's back to clouds and rain for another week. Yes, the weather can be dreary, but what beautiful trade-offs we get for all that rain!

That's it for now from . . .