The End Of Summer

The Red Poll cattle are looking happy and healthy:

 Little Ruby has not yet had her ear tattoos but she seems to know I'm a suspicious character so she hides behind her mother, Scarlett:

 And Scarlett usually hustles her away when I get too close:

 Blue and Remy are doing fine, but their Box Elder tree will drop its poisonous seeds any day now, and I will have to lock the horses in the barn until I get the seeds all cleaned up:

I walked into the barn one morning and found the two boys together in the hay, head to head and looking cute. It's apparent how attached they are to each other in spite of their quibbling and mischief:

 The sunflowers are almost finished. I've cut the tops out of many of them and others are going to seed already:

 Another photo of a Monarch butterfly in the Frans Hals Daylilies. It's ironic that the only place I can get a photo of a Monarch is on flowers of the same color:

 The littlest sunflowers, barely 6" tall:

I put the fantail pigeons on Craigslist, offering to sell 20 out of 43 of them. Alas, I've had no response, even after cutting the price in half:

 I took three vases of flowers to church, possibly the last of the season. This vase contained three colors of fragrant roses (orange, dark red and magenta), smallish sunflowers and red Mountain Maple leaves from the side of the road:

Blue and white wild Asters plus Birch leaves, all from the side of the road:

 Various colors of sunflowers plus red Mountain Maple leaves and Cattails from the side of the road:

Blue And Remy As Winter Strengthens

We've had a strange winter, with alternating snowstorms, cold spells and thaws. I had to walk all the way out to the far end of the pasture during one thaw to snap this picture of Blue, searching for frozen grass to eat. He had hay, but I think instinct drives them to crave green grass, however dead and frozen it may be:

Remy was doing the same:

One thaw was particularly nice, and Blue got to roam the pasture, actually finding some edible grass:

Remy, back by the birch trees which line the far end of the pasture:

But this was winter in the north country, and soon the skies once again darkened. A storm was on the way:

And we got both snow and cold, sometimes with heavy snow:

And sometimes with brutal cold, as low as -14 degrees (F) last night:

The horses can get into the barn whenever they want, but they like to be outdoors, foraging, as much as possible:

Remy is always happy when I walk out to see them. He gave me a big smile:

He also gave me a big yawn. I've been known to have that effect on people too:

Both little horses like to pick through the hay which the cows have wasted:

Even when there is plenty of fresher hay in the bale feeder: