Light And Dark

It did not rain once all day yesterday, and the sun came out to play now and again.  The girls were so happy to be out in their pen and ran, not walked, up to the corner for their alfalfa.  Inga was up on the stand when I heard the first snorts of alarm.  When they continued, I got up to see what was so scary.  All of the girls were at the connecting fence line between the two pastures, all heads turned in the same direction.  Following their line of sight, there it was.  A single coyote was in the big pen, nosing around under the big oak like he was reading a menu.  I yelled like a madwoman and banged the half-door like a gunshot and Coyote took off running.  It was easy to tell when the panic was over because the girls went back to munching alfalfa as if nothing had happened.  Milking went on as usual.  That is, until it was Tessie's turn.  "No, thanks.  I'm busy and I'll come in when I'm good and ready."  Well, that happens sometimes and I go about cleaning stalls while I wait for Her Highness.  She usually figures out that she'll miss out on breakfast and so she'll appear at the gate or door if I just ignore her.  Not yesterday.  I yelled, I pleaded, I threatened, all to no avail.  That little twerp would come within a foot of stepping inside, but would not come in.  Trying to grab her collar only made her back away faster.  I did explain that she'd be very sorry and she'd be hurting, but it made no difference to Tess.  So be it.

My only concession to Halloween this year was to buy one candy bar at the store instead of a bag.  We've never had a single trick-or-treater in all these years and I didn't need that temptation on hand.  Then I remembered that Beau and Katie have little kids and there might be a possibility they'd show up.  So I baked cookies yesterday, just in case.  Naturally, I had cookies for dinner.  That's it.  Just cookies.

The evening sky was a beautiful study in light and dark on my way to put the kids to bed.

Just when you think it couldn't get any prettier, it does.  I couldn't decide which of these two sunset photos was better, so here they are.

It was a good day.