Born

Today was the first day of summer or, that's how it felt. A whole day of sunshine and hardly any wind at all,  a day for putting away winterstuff and to see how the plants are doing, maybe helping where it's needed and to remove dead things.

While I was cleaning my winter boots to put them away in the attic, I heard a bump, a moan and a little splash only a few metres away. One of the cows gave birth to a calf and I could take fotos and film a little to send to my landlord, the owner of the cows. I was filming about half an hour and in that time the calf started as a wet lump, coughing and sneezing a bit to clear the mouth and nose, to a walking calf seeking out where the milk container was. How do they know? What makes them stand up that soon when they are exhausted to begin with after being born, and why do they know where to look for milk and how to get it out from the mother? It was all fascinating. 

For once i present a collage containing the first steps of life; being licked clean by mother cow for a very long time (how does she know what to do?), trying to stand up and falling a lot and then suddenly the first step and last finding out about food. It took me seventy years to get this close to a birth, a humbling experience.