Tuesday, November 11, 2008

PURTY COWS


I had never thought I had an affinity for cows. I grew up on a farm and cows were part of the landscape -- in green pastures in summer, in brown pastures in fall and sometimes in icy, even snowy pastures in winter. Cows standing belly-deep in cool ponds on hot days and cows with icicles hanging off their noses in winter.

Cows come in many colors. Long ago my father had a beige Jersey cow. Babe had large brown eyes. I liked to press my face against her warm hide and breathe in her scent.

On our farm were black cows, red and white cows and some black and white cows. The typical black and white cow we see on television urging us to 'Eat More Chickin' is a Holstein. During my teenage years, black and white Holstein dairy cattle spotted our pastures. I never thought they were pretty as the Jersey, Guernsey, Black Angus, and Herefords.

A couple of years ago, while riding through a particularly picturesque area, my husband said, "You really like cows, don't you?"

"I never thought about it. I don't think I really like cows. Why do you say that?"
"Because, every time we pass a herd of cows, you say 'purty cows'." He laughed. "I think you really like cows."
That got me to thinking, and I realize that I do, indeed, like cows. Recently on a fantastic fall afternoon driving east on Hwy 64 from Murphy, NC to Hayesville, as the sun slid toward the mountain tops in the west, it cast a glow over everything in front of me. I wanted to stop right there, in the middle of the road, and capture the scene of the hills, the cows and the blue mountains in the background. Of course, I couldn't do that. Highway 64 is one busy road, so I did the next best thing. I turned off, found a spot, and made a few photos. That was when I remembered Janice Moore's poem about cows. She grew up in the city, and I enjoy this poem in which she is first introduced to cows living near.

8 comments:

  1. I love the "happy cows" commercials...yes, there are actually a couple of commercials I find funny! *smiling*

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  2. Kathryn, there are some commercials I enjoy, also. Most of them have animals in them. Usually my nose is buried in my computer or a book and my husband has to tell me to look at the TV. He knows what I like.

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  3. Tipper, did you ever milk a cow? When I was just a little tyke, my brother told me to stand near while he shot a stream of warm milk into my mouth. Being a big brother, he quickly learned it he had more fun spraying milk all over my face than to hit my gaping mouth. I was so gullible!

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  4. I love your essay about "cows." We country folks know about cows. This brings back a lot of fond memories about gowing up on a farm in WNC.

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  5. I love this! And I love LOOKING at cows, but once my cousins and I took a shortcut across what APPEARED to be an open pasture. It was around Christmas and ONE of my cousin had tied jingle bells to her shoelaces and when she ran, her shoes would jingle. Anyway ... about half way across the field, we heard this thundering "ka-whum-t-dump" sound coming towards us and it was more cows than I've ever seen in my LIFE! We realized it was her shoes which she ended up kicking off and leaving in the pasture, which the cows soon surrounded as if they were waiting to be fed by them.

    So cows are beautiful ... but not very smart. I still love looking at them!

    Love this piece!!! Sorry for the long blog-ment! -Lynn

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  6. BTW ... I featured your Blog on my own blog today!!! Nice to meet you! -Lynn

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  7. Thanks for your comments. I love Lyn's post on cows. Cows create more interest than I had suspected.
    I could probably write a book on the subject of cows, now that I think about it.
    Glenda

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