Patterns

It's a sprinkly day today but the animals don't seem to mind. This is Sophie the sheep. I think she was hoping I had a handful of grain. When she saw that I didn't, she took off to be with her more skittish friend, Blue. Sophie is the only sheep I know who knows how to give hugs. Maybe I'll get a picture of what a sheep hug looks like when she's not so wet.

I found Patrik cleaning up hay under the shelter.

Sundance and Sofi were braving the elements.

One of the things I've found fascinating is to follow the horses around and find specifically which grasses and herbs they prefer. It's easy enough to say that horses eat grass, but when I look closely, there are many different varieties at different stages of growth. The horses are very selective about which ones they choose.

Here, Sundance is like a duck, nibbling grasses from a boggy area. Sometimes when I don't bring grain treats with me, I will see which plants they like and then pick some myself to feed to them. It never fails to be a way to get them curious about what I'm doing.

Today I was struck by the way the horses' coats looked in the rain. It's very different for me to have changed from being a person who would look at her wet horse and feel discouraged about how hard it's going to be to get clean, or what skin diseases might be brewing....

...to simply enjoying the colors and patterns that nature makes as she uses her ancient ways to shed the water.

Patrik soon joined us outside. The mud mixed in with his hair reminded me of the documentary I watched last night about Andy Goldsworthy called Rivers and Tides.

He's an artist who creates ephemeral art in nature like the work pictured below.

Before I left, I took one last look down the valley...

...and then to my right where a naked buckeye tree seems to be growing out of the rocks, flanked by two oaks. I think the buckeye will be the first tree to bloom. I'll check back and see if I can record the first buds heralding the rebirth.