Red Poll Cows In Winter

I do the chores twice each day but only occasionally walk out into the pasture for a closeup look at the herd (especially in winter). But this day I did walk out, just at dusk, and found the horses and cows snacking on hay and bedding down for the night:

 Scarlett and Amy at dusk:

 Rosella:

The girls have proven themselves to be winter hardy, living outdoors all year in all kinds of weather:

Jasmine is the friendliest cow, the only one who routinely enjoys being petted:

They often turn their backs to the wind, as they were doing here, though Violet felt she had to keep a wary eye on me as I approached:

When the sheep farmers brought over more stemmy hay which their sheep wouldn't eat, we managed to get the bale feeder around the load. The next morning, I found that the cows had pushed the bale feeder across the ice to a new location, giving them access to even more of the new hay. I couldn't tell, however, if it was because they liked the hay so much or because they were making a statement that they didn't like it. Either way, they ate most of it in short order:

 A new hay bale in the cold, wintry rain:

And eating hay in the snow. Eating hay is their primary activity all day, every day, and through much of the night:

 Jasmine:

A four foot round bale lasts only two days, or sometimes two and a half days:

 Amy:

Eventide

The cattle and horses began to spend their nights in the far field, where I couldn't see them from the house. I therefore began to drive down to the neighbors' house to check on my animals each evening before I settled in for the night. On one occasion I noticed the glorious bowl of the sky, strikingly different with each look, in each direction I cast my eyes. The occasion turned into a picture taking adventure and a post in which I've paired quotes from authors more gifted than I with my own photos:

“Dawn and dusk are mutual friends of the sun; one opens the door for him to a brand new day and the other one has to shut it to embrace the darkness of night.”       Munia Khan

 “The light is amber, the air still; the daylilies have folded in on themselves. Soon, the hooded blue of dusk will fall, followed by the darkness of night and the sky writing of the stars, indecipherable to us mortals, despite our attempts to force narrative upon them.”        Elizabeth Berg

 “It was that time of dusk when there is a—deepening of the interior shadows. It is a melancholy time: all you need do is switch on one lamp and the inside and the outside will separate, held apart by the reflections in the glass, and evening will begin.”       Rudolph Delson, Maynard and Jennica

 “Outside, daylight was bleeding slowly toward dusk.”        Stephen King, The Running Man

 “It is the quietening of the day that most appeals.”        Fennel Hudson, A Meaningful Life - Fennel's Journal - No. 1

 “There's a special quality to the loneliness of dusk, a melancholy more brooding even than the night's.”        Ed Gorman, Everybody's Somebody's Fool

 “The setting sun had turned the blue sky a brilliant orange, then soft pink merging to pearl; the plum velvet of night had come out of the east, spangled with stars.”        Paul Gallico, Ludmila: A Story Of Liechtenstein

 “...dusk is the time when men whisper of matters about which they remain silent in the full light of the sun.”       Simon Raven

“Twilight fell: The sky turned to a light, dusky purple littered with tiny silver stars.”      J.K Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
“A sunset is the sun’s fiery kiss to the night.”        Crystal Woods, Write Like No One Is Reading

 “The sky grew darker, painted blue on blue, one stroke at a time, into deeper and deeper shades of night.”        Haruki Murakami, Dance Dance Dance