the world of cows

A sunrise on a mostly cloudy morning can be quite beautiful. If there is a break in the sky, you may find yourself, for one fleeting moment, with a burst of radiant color.





Initially it is a warm morning, but that quickly changes and I think we can now finally say goodbye to the warm and somewhat sultry air that's been with us for so long. Perhaps most of the bugs will go away as well. One can hope.

In any case, the dip in temps means that we're eating our breakfast inside once more. Until next spring.





It's Friday and so I grocery shop and I have my recurrent conversation with the meat people:
I would like the Italian chicken sausages for Tuesday. Will they keep until then?
We suggest you buy them Sunday or Monday. We'll have them then. We never run out.

I get this kind of an answer often: come back in a couple of days. Am I the only one who grocery shops only once a week?

But all this is trivial. I hurry as always. I do not want to be late for Snowdrop's school pick up.

And as luck would have it, the clouds begin to thin out. It's going to be a brisk and lovely day after all!

(Where to, grandma?)





Oh, I know where to! I've brought over the stroller: we're heading to a cow fair (aka World Dairy Expo), little one!


I'd taken her to the World Dairy Expo a year ago. She was then just nine months old and she was taken aback by the whole thing. (It's noisy, crowded, smelly and, well, there are all those cows!) What would she think this year?


(Whoa! Real cows are bigger than me!)






(Maybe we should go that way!)





She is again unsure about the huge holding pens where hundreds of cows wait.
Want to walk up between the stalls?
No!

But she has, too, a new level of confidence. And she is thrilled to climb any which way she can in the expo center's grand exhibition hall.

(Mommy and daddy took me here for hokey games! Where did the ice go?)






(I'm taking it all in, grandma!)






(Let's check out the International Lounge!)





She climbs every stairwell, navigates every inch of open space and in fact would be happy to do so for a long while, but it really is getting long past her nap time, so I point her toward the exit. Though I cannot resist a souvenir from this day -- a cow, of course.

(Do we have to go?)





One more pause to look at the parade of cows...






(I think I'm more fond of my own wee cow...)






At the farmhouse, she places her special new bovine pal in the high chair...






... then turns to the practicalities of life -- like tugging at the (now functioning) refrigerator door to see what goodies lie within.






A few strawberries. Perfect. She takes them (and cow) to her little table. I try to sneak in a pony tail. It stays up for about two minutes.






Cow gets the royal treatment today -- a special helping of pretend yogurt. (Snowdrop is not a milk drinker. We substitute it with yogurt, which she does love.)






I feel I've done my duty: I've gotten my wee granddaughter up close, really close to her home state's most important animal. We live in the "dairy state." An annual visit to the World Dairy Expo is sort of like a trip to the orange grove if you live in Florida or a lobster shack if you're from Maine.


After her nap, she feeds her bis. And her cow. Yeah!






A day of sunshine and gorgeous cows. What could be better?!