After a long, long morning of deep dripping clouds
The wind pushed and shoved and tumbled the clouds and moisture away
Away, away to the east whereby the time the sun started setting
The utter hopelessness and weariness of winter was no more
Then the gentle sky and the soggy earth spoke of melting snow and the promise to come of
SPRING’s Brightness.
This morning the sun has foretold the end of WINTER!
YAY!
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
The farming season is taking a long time to begin. The earth is still wet; filled with mud, ice and snow lying in the shadows
If it were a normal year, Terry would be out on the land disking in the corn stalks and getting ready to plow—–yes, most farmers still plow here, it’s all about the type of soil on a farm
We are thickly covered in clouds today, although, there is hope for scattered sunshine
And it’s cold. The wind, you know, goes right through a body.
As wet as we are Terry is thinking it will be at least two more weeks before a tractor can get out there and begin…I guess we wait.
There really isn’t anything anyone can do until the weather gods say COME ON SUN, it’s time for Spring to begin!
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
We had rain…I tried to get a photo of it last night, rain is rather hard to photograph in the dark…
Just say’n.
But still, I had fun trying.
Yesterday our oldest daughter saw a marvelous rainbow on her way to work
So, because I love rainbows…she sent a photo to me!
Even though we are so terribly wet, and the days are dark and dreary Boomer’s and my little walkabouts are showing that Spring is starting to arrive
And this morning after a night of hard rain
I see GREEN starting to appear!
YAY!
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
Sometimes I think I can hear singing from the Heavens
The sounds shimmering in the sky and across the land
A sound so beautiful it feels like I can see the chorus; filtering through the clouds on the beams of light
Just there in the landscape lit so lovingly by the setting sun
The notes falling and rising in a ghost song…the choir those who love us (but have passed on) singing a bedtime lullaby: Sleep tight, we are here, you are safe…rest.
From my world to your heart,
Linda
Terry, Boomer and I had walked up to the cross-over pipe looking at the spring projects we wanted to complete, walking ever so carefully in the ‘dry’ parts of the farm road.
We talked about moving this and that, of cleaning the ditch and removing the caps on the pipes when over-head
A low-flying airplane buzzed us…dipping the wings left then right! It was a wee bit of unusual fun on a very ordinary day.
Our daughter sent us a photo of T’Ata the proud bearer of a wonderous coat
MUD!
I do believe we need to dry out…rolling around in the dirt (mud) is NOT good for a lady’s coat!
What a mess! 🙂
Your friend on a western Colorado farm!
Linda
How can a person NOT believe in God, when the world is full of such beauty
When everything surrounding us whispers in shadowy voices of someone or something ‘more’ than us?
That God and his Son and all the Disciples and Disciplines and Angels and Studies of Religions and the Beliefs in the Goodness of Man
Even those magical worlds of fairies and elves and gnomes 🙂
Roar loudly that God is Infinite
And we, the human race is more than a heartbeat in time.
I believe in a Maker who does not make you feel guilty for just being alive—that thought is extremely saddening.
Although I can not explain my feelings, my heart bursts with love for being able to live on this amazing creation called Earth in this extraordinary weave I call my life.
From my heart to your world,
Linda
My paternal Grandmother, Francis Dorsey Shipley married Peter Edward Doyle on the 10th of September 1921….she was 19 and he was 31. Gram said they were very much in love, although, her dad did NOT approve of the marriage. (That is another story for another time.)
But for this story and this time, I wish to write to you about my Dad.
Lester Allen Doyle was born January 1, 1926, in Brea, Californa five years after Gram and Grand married. He was the only child.
By the time Daddy was 8-going on 9 the family had moved back to Delta, in the Read area and started farming. (The farm now is growing houses and roads. Sigh.)
Grams said it was an extremely happy time. Daddy’s memories are much along that same line of thought.
Then when Daddy turned 9, that September his Dad died.
And the world turned upside down. Gram sold the farm moved to Eckert and found a job.
When Daddy was almost eleven, Gram married Charles Albin Holder. Charley had lost his wife to a brain tumor and was raising three boys alone.
Actually, this was tough times for my Dad, he never felt part of the family…ever. (See how he held his hands behind his back trying to not take up lots of space), although, Gram was more than thrilled with her new life.
At one point Daddy ran away from home, going to live with his Uncle Ott Doyle. Dad stayed with Ott and his family for a goodly amount of time. Then one day, Ott took Dad for pickup truck ride and gave him a wee bit of advice about life:
“Sometimes, Les” my Dad quoted to me one day, “There’s not much you can do about what life hands you, but go on.”
After more heart to heart talk, Daddy went home. Then when he just turned 17 he talked his Mom into letting him go into the Navy –it was WWII.
Back home Dad married Momma, had Danny and I and we grew up living very close to both sides of our grandparents and Charley’s youngest son, Jr., and his family.
Dad continued to always treat the Holder’s like they were his family.
Even after Gram had died, my Dad took care of Charley as if he were his own father, bringing him to stay a week at a time with he and Mom and taking Charley out to eat once in a while.
One day I asked Daddy why he kept on taking care of Charley even though things were always ‘sorta off’ with Charley.
My Dad looked at me very seriously and said: “My Mother would have wanted me too.”
My heart crumpled with that statement.
I look back at Daddy’s life, sometimes, and realize he sat a huge example for me.
I love you, Daddy.
From my heart to your world,
Linda
We had winter all over again…it roared in Friday night complete with a nasty wind
Then Saturday we started a small but delightful warm-up
Mindy cat didn’t mind, she scampered blithely through the snow as I went about my daily work
The sun dazzled on the whiteness whenever it broke through the clouds
We had many little hungry tummies at the feeders
Pressing close to the seed cakes the Red-Winged Blackbirds dwelled, lingering, gathering energy to make it through the bitter cold which followed.
We woke up to 10*f (12c) weather this morning.
Still, it was beautiful!
Today we are to experience MELT with the temperatures rising to 40* f (4.4c) or so this afternoon.
Our world will be trickling water and patchwork fields and roads will appear.
There is a rumor, put forth by the weather people, that we will see 50*f (10c) weather and rain in just a few days!
I’m am excited just at the thought of it.
SPRING IS COMING! I just know it!!!
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
Chaos is hard to live with…we all fear disorder, confusion, upheaval
Because we fear bedlam we work very hard to discipline ourselves so nothing unexpected occurs.
Of course, if there is order, discipline and ‘nothing to worry about’.
THERE IS NO MAGIC!!! Ever, for why would you need it!
But….back to the need to have order—- on Monday, I wrote about my mother, grandmother, and grandfather
From that post, I learned about Hobo signs…Chaucea left a comment telling me: “Yes! Hoboglyphs! (For instance, four horizontal lines means “Housewife feeds for chores.”)Its a truly fascinating history of hoboglyphs/hobo code, especially during the Great Depression”.
Joe sent me photos of the February’s Full Moon gliding over his home someplace way back East
A beautiful moon all glimmering and slivery up there splashing down onto the housetops and into Mr. Coopers camera…to come winging their way to me and then to you!
As for the February’s full moon here
I had to keep watch for a slit in the snow-laded massive wet clouds to capture anything of the moon.
There! Right there, drifting quickly through a wee tattered cloud while the cold nasty wind beat upon me and scuttled the clouds over the top of that gleaming moon
The moon was just there…brighter than all the black and grey clouds for a few seconds at most
Then the churning clouds splintered the silver light covering February’s full moon into roiling thrashing darkness of twisting heavy moisture.
But for a wee moment in time…I saw February’s Full Moon!
From my heart to your world,
Linda
Life on a Colorado Farm 