Coming up with ideas for each week's
Sepia Saturday theme is always a challenge and this week's theme of markets, cow, tea, coffee stalls was no exception. As a child my grandparents had a
farm in Bonnie, IL where they raised cows and pigs, but sadly other than their house I do not have any pictures. I do have memories of playing in the barn with my cousins when we met periodically for family reunions. We had to go through the barnyard gate past all the cows who, although quite docile and tame, scared me half to death. My cousins would run laughing right past them for the barn, but I would see all those big brown eyes looking at me so solemnly and I would be frozen with fear. Those are my memories of cows!
However I made new cow memories in September of 2009 when my husband and I took two weeks vacation, my dream trip, and went to the Highlands of Scotland where we drove from place to place. I took many pictures on our trip and one of my prerequisites for some reason was I had to get a picture of a long-haired Highland cow. We saw plenty of sheep, believe me we saw sheep....everywhere. The cows however seemed to avoid us. When we did see them it was not possible to stop or they were too far away. Finally one day on the Isle of Skye we came across this small band of cows who actually wandered over close to the fence to pose for us. You know, it's the little things in life - even though I took around 3,000 pictures in Scotland these pictures made me a very happy woman!
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| Highland Cows, Isle of Skye Sep 2009 |
These two cows actually walked over to the fence as if they were posing for us. I wonder if they were trained to do that for all the silly tourists stopping to take pictures? :-)
This guy looks like he was trying to tell us something - get lost maybe?
My favorite shot - he looks quite bored with the whole thing!
And finally, I bought this wonderful old book of the entire 1884
Peterson's Magazine which was a renowned women's literary and fashion magazine published in Philadelphia, a successful rival of Godey's Ladys Book. This book is so wonderful - it is full of hundreds of wood engravings, full-page steel engravings, hand-colored steel fashioned plates, articles, fiction, poetry, crafts, household domestics hints, etc. I am so giddy about owning this book so expect to see a lot more from this in the future. Today I am sharing a poem written by Alexander A. Irvine from the May 1884 issue along with a wood engraving (artist unknown).
The poem reads:
Oh, my soul, be glad to-day;
All the air is full of May!
Winter, with its storms, is over;
Bees are humming in the clover;
Lilacs waft us their perfume;
Apple-orchards burst in bloom;
Deep in grasses lush the kine;
Chewing slow the cud, recline;
Through the trees the sunshine gleams;
Birds are singing as in dreams;
Waters laugh; and breezes free
Blow as if from Araby!
