It was Winston (The Bull)
Have you ever been sitting having breakfast, when a bull looks into the kitchen window, well we did. It was Winston, our seven year old Hereford bull, it was June time and he had been on his own in a field behind the building for almost six months.
Way in the distance he can see other cattle and he was getting a bit restless, particularly after having a couple of months or more of good grass that has built up his body weight, until he is almost fighting fit.
So fit, that he managed to open his field gate and let himself into the stack yard, and gave the round hay bales a bit of a routing up on his way down to the back yard outside the house.
Just having the camera handy I took this picture of him through our kitchen window
just as he ambled across the lawn
He cross the path that leads from the wicket to the house door and into the corner, where he decides where to go next, giving me time to race out with the camera to take a few more picture.
He is reasonably quiet, and decides, this way,This was my vein attempt to persuade him to head back to his field, I was always of the belief that cattle not rushed about or driven will take the line of least resistance, usually uphill, even a strand of string will persuade them not to go through that way (more often than not).
But no, he decides to have a look through the kitchen window, and part the chairs under the porch where we sit and have a morning coffee break, then he paused for a minuet.
I thought at that point he was going to leave a message, as cattle invariably do, to mark his presence.
Then he moved on again without any prompting towards a narrow opening in the trellis, this he did by threading one horn through first then rolled his head and got the other through without smashing the opening, an opening that was stretched as the bulk of his body slowly went through.
Now fully emerged from the porch, you can see the straw on his shoulders where he had had a play with some bales on his way down.
Now between the bushes and chooses the narrowest pair to get through
This is the general area where Winston visited
And back across where we park the vehicles. Don’t know about you but I always look at what else is in a picture, particularly if it’s a farm yard.
First and most obvious is the land rover Discovery, then leaning up against the out buildings is a pair of corn drill wheels, it is what is left of the Massy Harris Combine drill that father had new almost sixty years ago, very up to date back then as the fertilizer was sown with the grain in one go.
It looks like a house broom had been hastily abandoned, and above the bull’s rump is the roof of the village school.
A Calf New Born
Its nice to go into the field, and find a calf new born,
They come along at any time, day or night or early morn,
Pains of birth alert the cow, find a nice quiet spot to lay,
Pushing hard till it appears, it’s over in a day.
Within an hour it’s licked and polished, up and had some milk,
Then off to find a place to hide, its coat as smooth as silk,
A bog of nettles, stalky grass, or just some rushes in a tuft
Keep its head down have a sleep, predators its out bluffed.
With plenty milk and summer sun, it plays and grows as well,
Mother gets fed up with it, but knows it’s hers by smell,
At summer’s end it’s parted from, its mother needs a rest,
Life of growing, getting fat, for meat, correct you’ve guessed.
Owd Fred
Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.
Sir Winston Churchill
