Animals – Valerie's Voice

Impromptu Purchase

I had a short time between appointments last week, so I decided to tuck into a gift shop in downtown Northfield. There were fall items on sale, but a large part of the store was already decked out for Christmas. I wasn’t planning to buy anything.

A 5″ x 6″ Wooden Plaque: Primitives by Kathy ~ Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

But, the moment I saw this painting on a wooden block, I knew I wanted it. It was a totally impromptu purchase, which I rarely do, but I loved the image and the joy it brought to me. Maybe it’s because I had been out to helping on the farm earlier this week; feeding two horses, two donkeys, two goats, two Nigerian Dwarf goats, two sheep (they’re new), eight chickens and four cats. I have grown fond of these beautiful creatures.

Most of the farm animals I work with are represented on this picture plaque. The horse, donkey, sheep, goats, and rooster are so familiar to me. The picture made me feel happy and joyful, and worshipful even. I loved to see the animals gathered around the manger, worshiping baby Jesus. Although it is a Christmas scene, I plan to keep it up all year long.

Later that same day I was driving to an art exhibit and passed a farm. “And on that farm” was a row of sheep that caught my attention. Several sheep were all lined up along a long wooden fence, with their heads hanging through the first horizontal rail. All their heads were lowered…they looked to be eating something off the ground. And then I noticed one, big brown (black?) sheep (or possibly a goat) facing the others – outside the fence. The whole scene made me smile and I turned the car around to go back and take a picture.

Artist: Julie Fakler – Pet Portraits in acrylic paint & clay.

I went to the art gallery to see one exhibit, and afterward was lured in to another studio with a special exhibit of animals painted on clay, and other mediums. Farm animals seemed to be the theme of my day, so I took more photos.

Artist: Jule Fakler – Pet Portraits in acrylic paint & clay.

Artist Julie Fakler offers a variety of pictures to choose from on her ‘Pet Portraits” business cards.
She is a local artist in Faribault, MN.

I do love animals. It was a good day.

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful, 
The Lord God made them all. 
		                                                            Stanza 1 by Cecil Frances Alexander

Unusual Sightings

There were several sheep along the shore of the lake on Carleton College campus.

While walking at Carleton College I saw about twenty-four sheep penned in along the lakeshore. I have seen goats there, knowing they “rent them” to eat all the unwanted brush. I assume sheep do the same thing, but I had not heard of that before.

A few days later we were up with our grandchildren and as we walked out the front door our grandson spotted this beautiful dragonfly clinging to the stucco of the house. It looked like its body was made of green glass marbles. It was glistening.

The largest of several frogs in the pond.

And while walking around Pond Number Two near our house, we noticed several frogs. Frogs are a good thing to have in our ponds. We counted at least a dozen, and then spotted this large bullfrog! He was maybe 6-8 inches long…a whopper!.

More Random Thoughts on Animals

We’ve had unseasonably warmer weather for this time of year (except for that one cold night in Duluth at Bentleville). It hit 54* yesterday. Gary went for a bike ride (my bike was put away for winter already) and I went for a long walk around the three ponds in our neighborhood.

This is one portion of the pond where hundreds of geese are facing the same direction.

This is a regular route and we often see wildlife. We’ve seen otters, and a beaver a couple years ago, a fox and frogs and such. However, the past few days the ponds have been clear of any wild life. I thought the Canadian geese and ducks had flown south. I guess not, they were back, in mass.

The geese in the pond from a different angle.

It was a beautiful sight, and a fun sight since they were mostly all facing the same direction…like they were waiting for a preacher to start preaching.

The beautiful Cathedral of Our Merciful Saviour in Faribault, Minnesota.

Which led me to thinking about a recent concert we went to at Our Merciful Savior’s Cathedral in Faribault Minnesota. We entered the church from the front and I liked what I saw.

The menagerie of stuffed animals taking up the front pew of this church.

The entire front pew was lined with all different sorts of stuffed animals…all looking towards the pulpit. I thought it was a clever way to fill the front row since so many of us head to the back of church to sit, but I found out after the concert, when we visited with the priest, that he keeps the stuffed animals up front for his children’s sermons.

Glass frog…photo off internet public domain

Then, as I continued walking along, I thought about an age-appropriate book I’ve been reading for our grandson. This adventure book talks about different animals in the Amazon rainforest. It introduced me to a glass frog. It is amazing (as all creatures are). This frog has a lime green, camouflage back with a translucent underside where you can see the organs inside its body! I had to look it up! I had never heard of this.

And sure enough, there is such a creature! And there are a couple of fun videos on the internet about the glass frog! I’ve added a couple of links.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twAK29xwb6Q

The male glass frog also is the soul protector of the eggs and will ward off its predator, the wasp, with one swift kick of his very long leg.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7zARByAu1c

Once again, I’m reminded “All creatures great and small, the Lord God made them all” – unique, wonderful and amazing!

Medley of Flora and Fauna

During our time in Scotland we were on the lookout for the Highland Cattle, affectionately called Hairy Coos. After a few days we were excited to spot several of them in a field.

They are unique creatures, with shaggy coats and long horns, and they originated in the Scottish Highlands. They are friendly and cute. One of them ate grass from my hand.

Harry Coos are very popular on goods in the Scottish Highlands…from tins and magnets to coasters and towels and shopping bags…they are fun!

Of course we saw sheep…they seemed to be everywhere! Thousands of them…but I didn’t grow tired of seeing them…

They usually were in settings that were pastoral and calming.

Sheep sharing the path along Hadrian’s wall.

And I always like to see horses in a field…

And cattle…

Silhouettes of cattle in a field along Hadrian’s Wall.

We missed the peak season for the bright purple heather on the hillsides. I saw photos of heather in their prime season and it looked stunning…just like when we see the fall color peak in Minnesota.

Heather grows all over the hills and rocks.

But we did see a lot of heather past peak, and it was still pretty. The picturesque Scottish Highlands are a perfect backdrop for the muted colors of the heather.

More than the average colorful hydrangea’s in many places…blues and pinks and deep purples.

Flower pots and window boxes are a bright spot when the weather is overcast and dreary, which they say is a lot of the time.

Rosebay willowherb was another wildflower that was in bloom.

Rosebay Willowherb in the forefront, along Loch Ness.

We also saw many rainbows during our time in Scotland. This full rainbow was taken on our last day, before we boarded our flight home.

Scotland bids us farewell with a beautiful rainbow.

The Storm is Over

Thursday morning the snow started to taper off mid-morning, and stopped before noon. The official snowfall total for Northfield was 15.1 inches over this three-day storm. That’s a lot of snow, but not a record. Now, this morning, it’s cold out there…below zero temperatures!

This is our back deck…the table was clear of snow prior to the storm.

Thankfully we have a snow blower. With Gary behind the snow blower and me using shovels to clear out the front porch and short walkway, we make a good team, but he does the brunt of the work shoveling out.

We are also responsible to clear the public sidewalk along the east side of our house…Gary uses the snowblower for that.

It wasn’t too cold when we went out to clear snow. It went quickly. Then we wait until the snowplow comes along to plow the street and pushes a huge mound of snow back into our driveway. Gary goes out once again to plow it out…and the sidewalk entrance too. And so it goes.

The birdfeeders suctioned to our windows were full of snow. I saw a chickadee pecking through the snow to find seeds. I “spooned” out the snow and added fresh seed in the feeders.

The bird feeder and bird bath is another gauge of how much snow accumulated in our yard.

The first day of the snowstorm we were on country roads driving home. It had been snowing for awhile and the wind was blowing across the fields making it low visibility and white-out conditions over the fields. At that time, it was just beginning to snow…I can only imagine what it is like out on open roads with much snow and wind.

It looks so innocent and serene looking out our windows.

The front of our house…lots and lots of snow. It will be a while before we see green grass!

Ah…Minnesota winters…not for the faint of heart.

Sugar Sand Festival

While in Florida, we checked out a Sugar Sand Festival exhibit, “Sandimals,” while on Clearwater Beach.

These incredible sculptures were made from the beach’s white sand. It was held in a huge tent, shaded from the sun, and cool inside.

We meandered through the one-way path observing this amazing and unique artwork. The sculptures were arranged according to the alphabet…like many children’s books: A for aardvark, B for bear, C for cat, etc…and the displays were all different animal types.

These two reminded me of Frog and Toad – beloved children’s book characters.

It was fascinating.

My favorite: the leopard…his spots were holes in the sand.

There was one artist working silently on a dog sculpture, putting on the last touches. It would be fun to watch the whole process…starting from the top down. I’m sure it takes a long time. It definitely takes talent.

It’s hard to remember these are all sculpted using fine sand.

It was really fun to walk through this display of sand animals…an unusual “walk on the beach” experience.

Animal Sightings in Arizona

On our recent visit to AZ, not only did we see the desert in bloom, but we saw several kinds of birds and animals.

There were cardinals in the trees, and lots of hummingbirds too. There were mourning doves and lots of quail drinking from a large, ceramic basin of water our friends strategically placed outside their family room window. I enjoyed seeing the quail and their pretty little head plumes. I tried several times to get a photo of the quail but it just didn’t happen. We spotted a roadrunner racing on the ground several times.

The Great Horned owl tucked between the arms of a saguaro cactus. She’s protecting two owlets. There is one in the photo.

But the prize bird sighting was a Great-horned owl, and her two owlets. Their nest was in-between the arms of a tall, saguaro cactus. Ouch. Those cactus needles are prickly! We stopped to see the nest on our way to our friend’s house directly from the airport. We saw mama, and her two young ones the first time. Two days later we stopped by to check on the owlets and they had grown. My friend got an up-close photo of one of them with her special camera.

Photo of an owlet through a zoom lens. photo by tw

There were jack rabbits all over town; in the yards, on the golf courses, in the open spaces, at the watering bowl. I didn’t have my camera ready at the right moments so I didn’t get any photos of the cute bunnies with long ears.

We saw long-horn cattle roaming in the open, alongside the road to the trailhead for our desert hike.

But the prize animal sighting was bighorn sheep. On the drive through the mountains to Canyon Lake (where we had scheduled a boat ride in a beautiful reservoir) we spotted bighorn sheep.

Canyon Lake…I called these rock formations “desert fjords”. photo by tw

Four of the 8 big horn sheep we watched. photo by tw

Big horn sheep climbing the rocky terrain. photo by tw

We stopped to take photos and watch the beautiful creatures maneuver the rocky terrain. We counted 8. My friend had a camera with a stronger zoom so I let her take the photos.

And lastly…the night before we left, in the rocky side yard we spotted a Gila Monster (pronounced heel-la monster), a poisonous lizard and apparently a rare sighting.

The lizard moves slow so we could get a good look at it and take photos. According to Wikipedia, it is the only venomous lizard native to the United States.

Each flower, each bird, each animal is a gift. I marvel at nature’s beauty and God’s amazing creativity. And I am grateful.