A MOOO-VING EXPERIENCE

If you thought I was bonkers yesterday dressing up and posing with a group of cuddly toys, today you would have been absolutely convinced. 

Mr. HCB went to Church this morning, but I stayed at home because I don’t feel ready to mix with a lot of people inside a building - so I watched a service online, which I enjoyed.  

When he got home, we had a quick bite to eat and then decided to go out to look for some dereliction, mainly because I haven’t posted much lately, as I’ve been busy doing my 100 Abstracts Challenge - see below.  We drove along many country roads we hadn’t been down before, but there wasn’t much dereliction to be found, so this is my offering for today instead - a beautiful Friesian bull calf.

As we came along a country road quite near Brinkworth, incidentally, reputed to be the longest village in England, Mr. HCB remarked that many of the cows in this field were lying down, so he stopped the car so that I could have a look.  I did my cow impression while standing at the gate of the field and my mooing must have been quite realistic because quite a few of them got up and wandered over to the gate, at which point I chatted to them.  

Yes, I mean it, I did talk to them;  I told them it was good to see them, sympathised that there were a lot of flies about and also said I was sorry that it had just started to rain.  Mr. HCB stayed in the car, chuckling away, but this particular lad or should I say, bull calf, came right over to the gate and was happy for me to stroke him.

I don’t know a lot about cows, but I guessed from their colouring these were British Friesians or they could be Holstein Friesians, according to Mr. Google, and I also learned the following:

“A calf must, by law, be identified with two tags, which are inserted into each ear shortly after birth.

Heifer (female) calves usually stay on the farm and are reared for entry into the milking portion of the herd whereas bull (male) calves are usually reared for beef. In exceptional cases where the bull is of superior genetic merit, it may be used for breeding. 

Once the heifer has given birth she will begin to produce milk. She will be called a heifer until she has her second calf when she will be called a cow.”

I thought that all cows were just called cows, but obviously not - amazing what you can learn, even at my age.  Apparently, Friesians can be one of two coat colours, white with black patches or white with red patches.  I guess, therefore, that unless this lovely fella is going to be used for breeding, I could be enjoying part of him as my Sunday topside joint at sometime in the future, but even so, I am pleased that I did have a good conversation with him;  even if he does end up on someone’s plate, he will at least have had his fifteen minutes of fame on Blip!

“Knock, knock.”
“Who’s there?”
“Cows go.”
“Cows go who?”








“No, silly. Cows go moo.”

Well, I thought it was funny!

P.S.  An update on my sponsorship in aid of the Mamie Martin Fund - it is now up to £886.50, so you can guess how thrilled I am - and very grateful to all those who have sponsored me but it's not too late!  Here is the link if you would like to push that total up a bit further so that impoverished girls in North Malawi can have, with financial help from the Fund, a good secondary school education:

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/MaureenIles