Everywhere a moo-moo

A young ox and Kevin, Springfield, Vt.

Vermont is green and gloriously hilly. And it is also all about cows. It claims to be about moose, too, and we even saw some "Moose Xing" signs in our travels, but nary a moose crossed our path last week. From Brattleboro to Weston, Newfane (our home away from home) to Springfield, we saw cows and oxen aplenty. I like their big dumb honest faces. I like the colors they come in, and the placid stare they level at you. I cringe when I see their hides shuddering to dislodge merciless clouds of horseflies. I don't mind the odor of fresh cow poop -- an admission that sent our kids into spasms of "ewwwww, GROSS, Mom!"

We went to an agricultural fair in Springfield last Sunday and saw lots of cows, mostly oxen, but some pretty dairy types, too. The pulling contests are my favorite events. There were no draft horses this time, but the oxen were dramatic in their enormousness and power. Some were stolid; a few could not contain their excitement, like the very large black ox on the left, below. He was so frisky, it took the woman in the red shirt four tries to get him and his partner hitched to the sled.



And when they were given the signal, man, did those beasts PULL.



With a black ox here...
And a white ox there...

And spotted ones everywhere...


In pastures during our drives, we saw heifers doing the horsefly ballet...



... or not.



Melinda's favorite was this "cow" in downtown Brattleboro. I guess you'd call it a people mooooover. (yuk yuk)

Sum-sum-summertime

Since the 26th of June I have:

10. Switched to Fridays off (love the long weekends but miss the midweek break).

9. Bought way too many tickets to way too many Los Lonely Boys concerts this fall.

8. Finally received my Melmac-type Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader holographic plate (woo hoo). Still waiting for: My green Yoda zip-up hoodie back-ordered from StarWars.com since early May. Wahh.

7. Discovered Limoncello, which I am drinking this very minute (yum yum). Did I say "drinking"? Of course I meant "sipping reverently."

6. Drove to Little Compton with Melinda for the annual church fair at the Commons and met new friend Carolyn there and bought some of her beautiful jewelry; and sighed about the beauty of Little Compton; and sighed again after checking real estate prices and concluding that, indeed, "you can't go home again."

5. Probably been too outspoken at work on sundry matters ... (sound of yet another nail being pounded into Anne's career coffin)

4. Gone to a family reunion in western New Jersey where we attended a Mass in Mom D's memory and celebrated Katie's graduation from Marist College.



3. Celebrated Michael's and my 30th wedding anniversary with a lovely broiled haddock dinner.



2. Worried about Kevin's health all last week. He probably had a mild form of viral meningitis - just like Brad Pitt.

1. Grown some fabuloso lilies in my side and front gardens.



Which leads me to this thought:

"Beauty takes us beyond the visible to the height of consciousness, past the ordinary to the mystical, away from the expedient to the endlessly true."
- Joan Chittister

Off to the Green Mountain state we go. I will try not to buy too many cow tchotchkes.