A Thing of Beauty . . .

"A thing of beauty is a joy forever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness . . ."

from Endymion by John Keats

Some beauty is more fleeting. Kate the Donkey is shedding her winter coat and emerging, for the summer, sleek and lovely as a race horse. (Well, possibly I exaggerate. But I think she's beautiful.)

The tiger lilies are here for their brief moment of glory.

And this evening, the beauty of the mists on the eastern mountains changed constantly.

But the view -- ah, may it remain a joy forever!

Farm Notes

Marigold, the Jersey heifer, is an aunt! Karen emailed from Yellow Branch to say that Silverbell, Marigold's half-sister (same mother, different AI sires) gave birth to Forsythia (seen above at about four hours old) back on Wednesday.

Another sign of Spring --unknown bugs appear --this one on my kitchen window sill. Time to think about putting the window screens back in. (Does anyone know what this creature is? I think he's rather elegant.)

Kate the donkey with her herd. Justin told me that the other day there were six wild turkeys in the field with the cows -- three toms strutting and showing off for three hens -- and Kate took exception to their carrying on and ran them off. ("Get out of here, you turkeys;" one imagines her braying, "this here's cow country!")

And yet another sign of warmer weather! The first snake is out relaxing by the fishpool! (I feel like someone in a Charles Addams cartoon saying that.)

Happy Saturday!

Meet Kate the Donkey

Kate is the latest addition to the farm -- as of yesterday afternoon. She's a six or seven year old jennet who has been living with a herd of cows for the past four years.

We've been looking for a guard donkey to put with our cows. While coyotes have not yet been a problem for us, they are moving into the area so this is a bit of a preemptive strike. Also, Kate should discourage the many (13) dogs that live in our holler from bothering the cattle.

She's tame-ish -- John said there was no problem loading her in the trailer. And I suspect that a little sweet feed and some apples will get her attention pretty quickly. She's in need of grooming but that will have to wait till she's gentled.

Kate's the classic gray-dun donkey color with the usual black stripe down her back and across her shoulders. Legend says that donkeys didn't have these markings until one carried Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and followed him to Calvary. Distraught by the sight of Jesus on the cross, the donkey turned away but could not leave. When the shadow of the cross fell on the donkey's back, it remained and has ever after been worn by all donkeys.

And no, I didn't name her after my editor. She came with the name.

Really.