“Old Grandfather Winter slowly walks across the land.
He knows that spring will soon be here.
Climbing the mountains to his palace of ice,
he turns to watch the snow’s melting behind him.”
excerpted from “When the Root Children Wake Up” by Audrey Wood
Of course around here, it is always the Year of the Sheep!
from the hills of West Virginia, where we are still wishing for a White Christmas… or at least a little less rain, fog and ice. Wishing you and yours a day full of love, peace and sparkle… all the things that make wonderful memories!
If you have seen the snow
under the lamppost
piled up like a white beaver hat on the picnic table
or somewhere slowly falling
into the brook
to be swallowed by water,
then you have seen beauty
and know it for its transience.
And if you have gone out in the snow
for only the pleasure
of walking barely protected
from the galaxies,
the flakes settling on your parka
like the dust from just-born stars,
the cold waking you
as if from long sleeping,
then you can understand
how, more often than not,
truth is found in silence,
how the natural world comes to you
if you go out to meet it,
its icy ditches filled with dead weeds,
its vacant birdhouses, and dens
full of the sleeping.
But this is the slowed-down season
held fast by darkness
and if no one comes to keep you company
then keep watch over your own solitude.
In that stillness, you will learn
with your whole body
the significance of cold
and the night,
which is otherwise always eluding you.
“Winter Grace’ by Patricia Fargnoli
Another common occurrence this winter has been freezing fog, and while it has made chores wet and somewhat difficult, it has also covered everything it touches with beautiful frosty crystals.
Winter wonders… everywhere you look.
What a winter it has been. Much like everywhere else we’ve had more snow, more wind, more sub-zero temperatures. The girls… well they pretty much take everything in stride… as long as the hay arrives in a timely manner. And the snow, well it does make for pretty picture taking.
Sub-zero temperatures, mounting snow pack and strong winds have all made winter chores much more difficult.
We’ve tried to take a few moments here and there and capture the beauty of these days of ‘snow globe weather’.
Here are just a few scenes from the pasture…
“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.”
~ Albert Camus
As we mentioned earlier this week, all the breeding groups are broken up and the bred ewes are back in the barn pasture along with Liam and Fury, two of the rams.
Poseidon and Aragorn, the other two rams are now in the back pasture, where after a bit of a ‘discussion’ they have pretty much settled in. Their job is done, and they will spend the next months putting weight back on that they lost during breeding season. They are content, except for the time they spend walking the fence line looking for ‘lost love’.
