Sunday, September 13, 2009

sheepishly

I’ll say this about Sunday: if you wake up and you remember that most every minute of the day ahead is accounted for, you feel cheated. As if you lost a week-end.

But every minute is not accounted for today! I have a handful of hours before the clock strikes the noon hour (at which time I will get ready, dress in black, walk to work). I hand over several precious minutes to reminiscing about how on recent, more flush September week-ends, I would be elsewhere, attending to grape harvests, or listening to the ocean waters pound the shores far far away.

To these musings I think Ed grunted. Or said nothing at all.

We should have house-cleaned, but I already cleaned this week-end and I felt I might well overdose on the stuff I spray on bathroom surfaces. Even though the container calls it eco this and green that.

Ed asks – do you want to go see an art show where the artists make things out of cigar boxes?
What things?
Don’t know. There are eleven artists displaying their cigar box works at a cigar shop.

It’s too perfect outside. I don’t want to breathe cigar smoke.

How about the Jefferson Sheep Fair? You like sheep.




DSC00509_2



Actually, I think sheep are pretty dumb. You look at them and they look away and they do it in unison. A bunch of sheep avoiding your gaze. It’s weird.

But I miss Scotland. Or, more accurately I miss the June days when I had nothing urgent on my plate except to hike from point A to point B, amidst fields of sheep.

We climb on Ed’s Honda and head east. Less than an hour out of Madison and we’re there.


DSC00648_2


We don't have much time, but I think we do take it all in: the market lamb contest…


DSC00574_2


The baby lambs…


DSC00581_2


The sheering of sheep (he charges about $4 per sheep; ...picked the skill up in New Zealand. It’s a lifestyle, he tells us. You don’t do it for the money but for the lifestyle. He sheers here and in Scotland and God knows where else. I think that I work for the love of teaching and for the money, sure, but I think that lifestyle – all indoors and very confined – is at odds with what I think of as healthy)…


DSC00602_2


Sheep. Everywhere sheep. And their attendants.


DSC00641_2


Sometimes back to back…


DSC00516_2


Or, really, just back to back sheep. Or the backsides of sheep (unlike the backsides of people, these are quite exposed).


DSC00521_2


I enjoy most watching the sheep herders participate in the herding event. I like how hell bent the dogs are – as if they could not run fast enough. Except when the master orders a stay. They crouch then, waiting to be released again.


DSC00551_2


There were other displays – of wool, spun by nimble hands…


DSC00593_2


Really, lots and lots of wool, for sale wool, for prizes wool, oily, beautiful, fragrant wool.


DSC00651_2


But in the end it was a joyful morning, full of those dumb, hairy sheep, uplifting to me, just because they made this Sunday morning less predictable than I thought it would be.


DSC00667_2

3 comments:

  1. Hi Nina!

    Your observation that sheep look away and in unison made me burst out laughing! Looks like you're making the most of the tail end of summer. Here in CA, autumn is slowly sneaking up on us.

    Happy week,
    Amanda

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lovely - especially the shot of the kids struggling to keep their sheep in perfect position for the judge.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.