Thursday, March 11, 2010

Enjoying the Moment

Every year in February I wonder if spring will ever come. The pastures look terrible and the landscape just looks so dead. This year I was really beginning to wonder if the grass would come back and if spring would ever come. Usually our daffodils are in full bloom by the last week of February if not earlier. Today they finally began to bloom and what I consider to be my personal, official, sign of spring finally arrived!

The daffodils put a smile on my face every year


Our weather has continued to be so lovely, mid to upper 60's and sunshine, with an occasional day in the 70's. It rained for a couple of hours over night last night as I hoped it would. A nice, warm rain was exactly what the grass ordered and overnight the cool season grasses were appearing very green. The warm season grasses are still a few weeks away but it definitely looked and felt like spring on the farm today. The birds were singing, my water troughs all have grass pieces dribbled into them instead of hay pieces, and shedding hair is flying everywhere. Heaven.

Mina and Jo and Billy grazing in my back yard. It looked like someone had spray painted the grass to make it green overnight.

This afternoon I did something that is extremely rare for me. I sat on a bench in front of the barn. I just sat there not doing anything, and watched the horses in the pasture, watched the goats, watched The Don (the rooster), listened to the birds, and enjoyed the sunshine. This is such a rare occurrence it actually prompted Jason to come over and ask me what was wrong, I am always doing something, I don't ever just SIT. It was one of those moments when everything simply feels right in the world and you want to freeze time and treasure it. I have to admit that I never had those moments in corporate life, even as a CEO running my own successful company. There is something about being on a farm, surrounded by a menagerie of content animals and soaking up beautiful weather that speaks to a fundamental part of my being. I'm glad I took the time to soak it in and just be for a little while this afternoon.

Tomorrow is another farrier day. Tomorrow it is supposed to rain all morning, at least until noon. I'm thinking tomorrow won't be as perfect as today. However, since I had such a perfect day today I probably won't complain about being soaking wet . . . . . . . . much.

Apollo, Homer, Chance and Trigger in the afternoon sun

Levendi

Slinky
Dustin
Elfin

Chance, Homer and Apollo. If you look closely you will see that the only part of Homer (gray) that isn't solid mud is the bottom half of his head

Harmony and Cuffie

O'Reilly, Chili and Snappy

Sebastian

B-Rad

Winston and Alex with a perfect blue sky behind them


Lucky and Teddy were just hanging out


Alex and B-Rad

Faune and Sebastian

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love daffodils, too, always have. We don't have flowers yet, but there are definite signs of spring.

RuckusButt said...

It is so important to stop and appreciate life when it strikes you. That's what life's all about, isn't it? One of my favorite quotes is:
"Failure’s hard, but success is far more dangerous. If you’re successful at the wrong thing, the mix of praise and money and opportunity can lock you in forever.”
Pretty much the story of my life, for better or worse. I wish I had the guts to leave the successful corporate life and do what my heart screams to do.

Even though green grass is a long way off here, I feel better looking at your spring pictures. Brings hope, thanks!

Laura said...

Glad your daffodils have finally made an appearance! No flowers here yet, but I saw a few hardy shoots poking out of the ground at a neighbour's place - so there is hope for me too!

Love the photos of your farm - nice solid fence and rolling hills... Glad you were able to take a moment and enjoy it all!

Vivian, Apollo's Mom said...

Oh, your daffodils are so beautiful! They are one thing I miss so much since we moved to Florida. It's been pouring down rain and cool here for the last two days- about 6" of rain has fallen in the neighborhood where I ride so no riding for me. Thanks for your pics as they reproduced the season of Spring so well. We get changes in Florida but not so significant. Apollo looks pretty filthy!

Victoria Cummings said...

I love sitting in the sun the way you describe. What could be better? Your daffodils are beautiful - can't wait for ours to bloom! They're just poking up from the ground around here.