The Weekend in Black and White.

My granddaughter's cat

with claws! 

Many great black and white photos are shared with this Challenge each week.

Two Fer Tuesday

I am so late today!

I couldn't miss though, so better late than never as they say.

Some of you may have seen this first photo before, as I think both my husband and my son have posted it, but I'm making no excuses for posting it now. I took it after all.
And this is actually my 200th post!

For the full story we have to go back in time to the end of April 2005, when we'd left the island and were renting a house from people who became friends.
Twice a day I walked our two dogs past our friends' stables and down the track onto the bogs. There they could run and play in safety.
I used to take crusts or sleepy apples to the ponies, who demanded a toll to let me pass their gate. Misty, the white pony, went away to find a husband, but failed to conceive. Rosie, the lovely 20 year old chestnut, was lonely, so a friend came to keep her company. This friend was a very small stallion. He obviously liked older ladies, and didn't let her height bother him. I used to watch him herding Rosie to an area where the path was about 18 inches above the rest of the field. Clever lad!

Anyway, as Rosie's time came closer, I checked her several times a day, but found nothing. Then one morning I went out with the dogs as usual, and I knew instantly that something was different.
Rosie came rapidly to the gate for her morning treat, but she was agitated. She'd come to the gate then run back towards a tree. There were clear signs that she'd given birth, but where was the foal?
With the dogs behaving beautifully, I went looking.
She'd had the foal in the open, below a hawthorn tree. When the foal tried to stand, it had slipped down a bank into the next field and ended in the heart of a huge bramble thicket.
This was something I couldn't manage alone, particularly with two dogs on leads. I rushed back to the house, shut the poor dogs in, grabbed cutters and gloves together with male help, and rushed back.
Now let me tell you that some of those briars were thicker than my thumbs! It took quite a time to cut enough away to free the foal,a beautiful filly, which was unable to stand at that time.
The first photo shows Stephen carrying the filly along the field and back to the gate.

And the second photo shows the reunited mother and daughter.

I'm sorry the light isn't better - the sun was still low enough to cast a lot of shadow. Rosie was so pleased to have her daughter back.

For more Two Fer Tuesday posts, visit
Jonna
who hosts this great idea.

Camera Critters

Badger is an old dog, 14 years old now.
Tris (short for Triskel, because she ran on only three legs when she came to us as a stray) is over 15 years old.
Old ladies often have strange ideas (I'm one, so I know!)
Tris decided that Badger's basket was nicer than hers.
Badger tried out Tris's basket, but it didn't really fit.
So she had to squeeze in alongside Tris!

The poor dog has a hard life!

For more Camera Critters visit Misty, who had this lovely idea.

Saturday PhotoHunt - Bad Hair

This week's theme for the Saturday PhotoHunt is

BAD HAIR

I recently saw a young lad with the most incredibly bad haircut, but I didn't have the nerve to ask if I could take his photo.
So that left me with my usual fall-back.

The above photo is Badger, brushed and combed and as tidy as she ever is.
She has a lot of hair, but it can look relatively neat.

This is how she looks walking with the wind behind her.
Neat is not a word you could truthfully use!

Here she is, back from a breezy walk.

Lying down to rest, worn out from her exertions.
This is a close-up of some of the hair on her neck.
Why do I ever bother with the brushing and combing?

For more
BAD HAIR
posts,
pay a visit to
TNChick.

Happy Hunting!

More Plastic Flowers!

The plastic flowers are proliferating.
This is part of the verge on the other side of the road from yesterday's post. This is a much wider strip of grass, which is now decorated with tufts of coloured daisy-like plastic flowers.

Badger can't understand why this bunch of roses smells of plastic rather than flowers and leaves. She has to check it out each time we pass.

I suppose it makes the area look cared-for.

ABC Wednesday - C

Today's ABC Wednesday is the letter C. Many options. Cat? No. I posted cats yesterday.



Pretty Cactus flower? Maybe.
It is very pretty, after all.




No, I think I'll tell the story of my first Calf-baby, the one that had my horrible children calling me the old mother Cow!

This calf was rejected by her mother, and nearly starved. We kept goats at that time and had some barn-space available, so the calf moved in. She was the first calf born in May that year, so that became her name. She spent the nights and any bad weather under shelter, but came out for fresh air whenever possible. Here she is, a small white lump, curled up in the shelter of rocks and boxes. You'll have to look close to see her!Here she is talking to our lead nanny-goat, Annie.

And meeting her peer-group for the first time.

She grew to be a strong Cow who had several Calves of her own. She always considered our garden to be her home, and spent a lot of time trying to get in. Here she is on a rise just outside our fence, resting, with her second calf hiding behind her.
A happy ending for a once-rejected Calf, who grew into a strong Cow, and a good mother to her own Calves.

If you feel like joining the fun, visit MrsNesbit for instructions.

Café Cat

My poor husband suffers greatly. The cats have decided that he is the provider of food. They decided this, of course, because he's kind enough to notice them whenever they think they may be slightly hungry. I, on the other hand, make them wait until I'm ready. I'm cruel.

This is a picture of him providing breakfast for his owners. Rinli couldn't decide on which particular dish he'd prefer, so he's being offered a choice.

Finally he accepted suitable sustenance, and started to eat. Badger, in her usual tidy manner, hung around to clear up any mess.
Sweet friendly animals.

Cats!

So there I was this morning, sorting out some comments on my previous post, when this happened!





That's Rinli with the string on my desk, and Tris on my lap. It's so hard to blog under these conditions! Shortly after Aileni took these photos, Rinli decided to play with Tris. Tris objected, and they left. Now I can blog again!

Monday Musings

A bit of fun to start the week. I've shown you Badger trying to fit in Tris' basket on an earlier occasion, here. Now here's poor Badger squashed into a corner of her own bed so that Tris isn't disturbed. Isn't she a considerate dog?

Fortunately they are good friends. Tris likes to come walking with us to keep us company.Tris even likes to sniff the wheels of parked cars when we pass them. I wish I had a photo of them both sniffing - the dog with her head down and the cat stretching up. The neighbours laugh!
Sometimes you find treasures when you're out walking. Like this yummy slice of dry white bread. We had to stop for Badger to eat this. If I offered it to her at home she'd have been disgusted. I suppose things taste different in the open air!


Poor Badger finds all this walking and eating makes her thirsty. Maybe the bread was a leetle bit dry after all. This is actually her favourite puddle. She loves to stop and drink here. Tastes much nicer than the clean water I give her at home!

PhotoHunt - Delicious

This weeks theme is "Delicious". To me, that always means FOOD! As I'm currently trying to get rid of the results of my seasonal excesses, I thought it wiser to avoid anything too tempting, so I've returned to the past.

When we lived on our island, it was necessary for me to make my own bread. We were a family of seven - and the youngsters all had good appetites. I made three large loaves every day or two - more often if we had visitors!

I used to leave the loaves to cool in our one main room. In warm weather the doors and windows were open, and the smell of fresh hot bread spread far. There were donkeys who could be seen hurrying up the track as the breeze took the scent to them. When they arrived at the door it meant more bread-making soon!

The picture below is NOT of a donkey. This was Declan, our male goat. He was young, and rather pushy, and he liked bread. One day he walked into the kitchen, with his eyes on the fresh bread, which smelled delicious to him!

We were lucky this time. Although he brought two of his children with him (to distract us, I think!) he did not eat our tea.

We were less lucky on another occasion. Somehow we were all briefly out of the house, and the door had been left open by accident. We returned to find him in the kitchen. He'd eaten half of one loaf, and taken chunks out of the two others. He was NOT popular!