Red Hot Poker

One of the advantages of getting up extra early in the morning to go and milk, is being able to appreciate where we live. The freshness of a new day, seeing all the stars in the sky (and they were amazing this morning), and just prior to dawn, hearing all the birds starting to sing. It's a great time of the day to collect your thoughts, and remind yourself that life isn't too bad after all.

We had another busy morning milking, getting the boys to school, feeding out and getting more cows and calves out of the calving herd. Along with this, we had a first time calver (a 2yr old heifer), that was having trouble calving. She had the calf's feet out, but after a couple of hours, had made no progress. So we had to walk her up to the shed, where FarmerBoy calved her. It turns out that the calf was breach and luckily still alive.

I thought you would all be sick of the sight of cows and calves by now, so this afternoon I walked around the garden (which is just starting to come alive), and found this Red Hot Poker flower, in the process of opening up. I love the lovely vibrant colour and unusual shaped petals (if that's what you call them). It's great seeing a bit of colour in the garden, even if just to reassure you that spring is just around the corner!