Red Polls In Winter

It's been an odd winter so far, alternating between big snowstorms and thaws. The cows often huddle on the east side of the barn when the west winds are howling:

When they arrived last year, these cattle were emaciated and accustomed to warmer, Virginia winters. But their good genetics have enabled them to pack on the pounds and grow warm coats. Now they seldom want to go inside the barn except for grain or to eat what is supposed to be bedding hay:

Mostly now they hang around the bale feeder:

Rosella is still nursing at the age of five months:

When all the snow seen in the above photos suddenly melted, the cows were very happy:

They walked out into the pasture and tried valiantly to find some edible grass. In the end, they returned to the bale feeder:

Contented cows in the rosy glow of the setting sun:

And Rosella pushed her way in for a guzzle of milk even when she had a new bale of hay in front of her:

Violet is my biggest cow and a good looker. She's not overly friendly, but she's miles ahead of where she was a year ago:

But each thaw has been short lived and the snow always returns. That white triangle on Rosella's face is milk:

Jasmine, named for the mythical dancing girl in the movie, "Secondhand Lions," is a friendly girl with an especially expressive face:

Scarlett, the mother of Rosella, is the cow off to the left. She is easily recognizable even at a distance because the base of her tail rises up higher than her back line. She was once one of the two least friendly animals, but has really come around since her calf was born:

A Return To The Hays Brook Trail - Part 2

The dogs and I were hiking the Hays Brook trail (see also Part 1, yesterday's post) and having a grand time:

 

We'd had extremely high winds several days ago and the snow was littered with twigs, cones and needles which were especially apparent every time we left the trail to explore beneath the trees:

 

Right on the trail I found bits of lichens, adhering to twigs which had been blown down:

You might expect that gigantic Seamus would lead the way when we explored off the trail, but he is a follower and usually reluctant to leave the trail. So I just give him a call and he comes bounding through the snow to join us:

 

Lowbush Blueberries were nothing but twigs this time of year, and sticking up above the snow:

We tried following what appeared to be a deer path, but my footing became difficult and I opted to turn back to the easier trail:

Clover and Daphne, always the adventurers, were more than happy to bounce through the trees and explore:

But we were on our way back to the car and had to keep making progress:

Seamus was his usual happy, goofy self:

It's taken some time to get these dogs, who once were accustomed to running to their hearts' content, to stay close to me, but they seemed to be pretty good at it on this day:

Until, that is, they realized that our parked car was just up ahead. Then they broke into a run:

It was a short hike, but just right on that snowy day. We were all happy and ready to go home: