Adventures of an Aryshire

Some new visitors arrived yesterday, only hours after a group of Japanese youngsters left the farm, supposedly to return home. These newest arrivals look rather interesting. They toured around our fields and paddocks with dad yesterday afternoon, and got their first glimpse of the fields that we call home.

Dad and mom say that these newcomers were actually here to visit about 10 years ago, but since that time, much has changed around here. For one thing, dad and mom have moved from the big house which they sold to one of their sons and are now located in another part of the farm. We like this new location though because the grass is very sweet, and the humans who care for us have even planted a vegetable they call sweeds and choumolia to suplement our diet when the grass isn't growing as quickly as it has. The early part of this year was very difficult for us because there was very little rain so the pastures didn't regenerate very quickly. As a result, all of us who are about the calve in the next month or so are having a rather difficult time of it.

People usually say that we look as though we're taking life easy, but in fact we spend the vast majority of our day eating grass or chewing our cuds. Come to think of it, these two Canadian pilgrims have spent the vast majority of today just sitting around relaxing. Do humans chew their cuds too when their just watching the world go by?

I hope they've had enough rest today, because I've heard that tomorrow they will be off and running again. It's been quite some time since mom has knitted, and she's excited about the possibility of making some new sweaters (or jersies as we call them over here). I think she wants to take the priests shopping tomorrow to find the wool, and then she'll be off to the races.

As for dad, he's enjoying having these two around as well. He's usually very quiet, but he's spent all his life with us bovines so he's the best one to tell the priests about what life is like for us here on the farm. At one point there used to be as many as 425 of us to share these pastures, but these days there's only about half that number. Still, there's great wisdom to be learned from the simple things in life, and humans could probably benefit too if they'd just slow down every now and then, and take notice of the way we do things.