cute cows

i'm fast becoming a bit enamored of cows. i spotted these scottish highlanders today.  i think i could have convinced this one to follow me home. i don't know what scottish highlanders are known for (beef? milk? their "wool?"), but i want one anyway.

grateful friday

it's friday and i'm grateful for that.

i'm also grateful for:

~ good books (just finished per petterson's out stealing horses).

~ sunshine.

~ good business partners with lots of ideas.

~ baby animals (we've got bunnies, a single chick and will soon have kittens).

~ allergy meds.

~ all that business travel i did, which is helping me so much right now with a job i'm doing.

~ børnepenge, which always feels like free money when you least expect it (tho' it comes on a predictable quarterly basis).

~  the stable where we keep our horse - knowing that they take great care of her, even if we're really busy and can't get there for a couple of days.

~  really clever writing.

~ exciting work on the horizon.

~ blueberry plants.

~ taking a photo every day.

~ families who want to adopt a bunny.

~ stædtler fineliners.

~ moleskine notebooks.

~ i found lamb chops at the grocery store.

~ fresh nettles.

~ it's the weekend.

happy weekend everyone!

get out there and meet someone new

after my recent paradigm shift, i've been thinking about ways to be more active in my local surroundings. because previously, when i haven't found the human interaction i felt i needed in my everyday life, i turned to the blogosphere for such things. (easy now, i'm not abandoning that!) but husband has long teased me that i should find creative people in my area and hang out with them.

late last week, i stumbled onto the brooklyn brainery website and through it, found the society for the advancement of social studies and i longed for there to be such organizations in my area - somewhere to hang out with interesting people, to learn something esoteric, to teach about something i love (like blogging? or how to go about a 365 photo project?). and on facebook, i lamented that if there were to be such a thing in my area, i'd have to start it.

after more than a decade of closing myself off in order not to feel that feeling of rejection from the at times cold culture around me, i screwed up my courage and went to the library. i go to the library all the time, so it's not that bit that required courage. i knew that one of the women who works there is involved in the local "culture house," and i decided that i'd talk to her and share my ideas with her and ask how i could get involved. just out of the blue. like that. opening myself to rejection and everything.

and guess what? she was totally cool about it! she gave me her card and invited me to their january meeting where they will elect a new board and discuss the coming year. she said there are also possibilities for such activities through the library and not only through the local culture house (they managed to get their hands on the quaint old city hall building in our little town). and so last night, i sent her a mail with some ideas. and i'll talk to her some more on thursday. and i'm feeling pretty excited about it.

sometimes you just have to dare to get out there and meet someone new.

the accidental rabbit

currently being called mira (tho' that could change) just earlier today, it was named nanna.

currently being called sophia (just a few hours ago, known as ninus).

how does one accidentally purchase two rabbits, you ask?  well, it could happen (purely hypothetically, of course), if you were on a chicken acquisition mission and you thought that while you were looking at the blå avis for chickens anyway, you'd do a quick rabbit search. and the rabbits were not that far from the chickens, so it was quite easy to just pop by.

your plan originally was to check out the adult rabbits, so you could make your own babies with the rabbits you already have. because you can't allow them to make babies because they're brother and sister and so you need some outside blood. you had pretty much settled on a nice black & white buck for your dear solskin rabbit at home, when the nice lady asked if you wanted to see the babies around back. and lo and behold, there was a whole hutch full of the most adorable baby rabbits. in. the. world. some fuzzy ones and some with lop ears and so you think it would probably be best to get some potential wives for samba, your boy rabbit back at home.

and in the giddiness of the moment, you take two, but prudently decide not to buy the adult rabbit after all (showing some scrap of sanity reason restraint remains). and then you go on to get the chickens (only buying two more than you had originally planned and ordering half a dozen more). and there you definitely do not agree to buy a 4-year-old pony the next time you come back to get your other chickens. (that pony was so small it would so have fit in the back of the car if it hadn't already been full of chicken wire, bags of cement, pepper plants, rabbits and chickens).

and that's how you could accidentally buy a rabbit. or two. but really, look at their faces, could you have resisted?

the secret life of tiger

this is tiger.

he's a barn kitty.

and a bit of a fraidy cat, where people are concerned.

but he's secretly tame. 

and every morning, when i go out to feed, he's my buddy and lets me pet him.
but if anyone's around?
forget it.

*  *  *

if you want to hear a little bit our new bees, go here.

and there's still a chance to win an awesome bread baking book here.