Horse In Snow. January 20, 2013
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: 1800th post, animal communication, Horse in snow, Stamford VT
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Here’s a shot I took a few days back, of a horse up in Stamford VT, just over the border from Clarksburg, MA. I posted it on Facebook (yeah, I’m being sucked over to the Dark Side) but neglected to blog it:
That’s the “fun shot,” but as serious photographs go, I like this one better:
This beautiful boy was hanging out way over by yonder barn when I called him in by gently, almost silently, telling him how beautiful he was.
Yeah, he might have just been curious about a movement over by the road, but then, there’s a LOT of movement over by the road.
And it makes great sense to me that animals would have retained many senses and sensibilities which We Humans have allowed to atrophy in favor of a more precisely communicable language.
To date, conjecture about animal communication has spawned a dearth of research, but provides grist for the mind-mill of musings about what exists beyond the horizon of our conscious appreciation.
I realize I’ve been largely absent from the blogosphere for the past week; I’m trying to build a photography website (no it’s not yet ready for viewing,) and the “common wisdom,” if one can conceive of such a thing in the Tea Party Era, is that a Facebook presence is key to any kind of commercial success, which I’m sorely in need of. So I’ve been posting more stuff there than here, for which I apologize to my faithful readers.
In defense of my slacker blog ethics, though, I’d like to point out that this is my 1800th post at Little Bang Theory. Thank you, friends, for keeping me going this long and far! 😉
Tregelly’s Fiber Farm. August 5, 2012
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: animal communication, Bactrian camel, burros, Deerfield River valley, incredible bargains, llama, sheep, Stupa, Tregelly's Fiber Farm, weaving
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Up in the hills of nearby Hawley (though it’s only accessible by road from Buckland) sits Tregelly’s Fiber Farm, operated by Ed and Jody Cothey. It’s an amazing place filled with a menagerie of animals, many with fur useful for weaving.
Although Ed has largely given up weaving and sold off all of his looms but one (know anyone looking for a beautiful twelve-footer?) the place is still amazing to visit, as I did this past Saturday with my sweetie Susan. She has an affinity for animals, and is in fact a communicator, and needed some photos of her interacting with them, so… 😉
Susan and I were greeted by Ed and most of his nine dogs:
The house and barns sit on the brow of a hill overlooking the Deerfield river valley. The northern exposure gives a beautiful light to the great stone Stupa in the front yard:
Susan had a friend right off the bat –
Our little parade o’ fur meandered around the property, stopping to smile at common animals like goats and uncommon ones like yaks and this Bactrian camel:
These guys are BIG! They grow to over seven feet tall and can weigh over a ton. I asked Ed how they do with a New England winter, thinking of camels as desert beasts. He said these guys are native to the Mongolian plateau and the Gobi Desert, which is a desert only in that it’s dry – they routinely see temperatures of -40C in winter, and the camels do just fine!
Susan connected with some little burros…
…who were so excited and delighted to have the attention that they played up a storm!
They were a lot of fun to watch. 🙂
A little llama joined in the socializing:
…as did this somewhat skeptical sheep:
It was lovely to see, and I got lots of pictures, including this one of a sweet little Jack Russel terrier (I think) who wanted his “fifteen minutes:”
He only got three, but they were good ones! 😆
After the photo tour, Ed invited us in for tea, and we got to meet his birds, which he obviously adores as much as he loves his furred friends:
If you’re going to be in this area before November, I’d like to recommend a visit to this wonderful spot. Ed has a LOT of inventory from his now closed store, items made by his friends in countries all over the world (think Ten Thousand Villages or some such store) and is trying to move it all out before he leaves for six months in the Phillipines. Consequently, the prices are really hard to believe – I bought tee-shirts for a dollar apiece!
And if you can’t visit, I hope these photos will suffice. 🙂
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