The cows meander to all four corners
of their field throughout the day.
One noisy machine breaks the quiet
Another rumbles by to bale the hay.
A hare bounds in to nibble dandelions
in the lush seafront cow’s field.
He goes practically unnoticed
There’s plenty of room, no need to yield.
The horse I decided to call Star
has made a sudden return.
How did he and his owner know
for him I did secretly yearn?
But wait—it appears there’s a companion
He’s got a new horsey friend.
Obscured somewhat by the wavy grasses
his coat of dark brown shines without end.
He handsomely sports a broad white stripe
down his long majestic nose.
A welcome addition he is indeed
as my eclectic menagerie grows.
No sooner do I begin to enjoy
my noble equine neighbors
Who certainly do spice up the landscape
with their vanilla and chocolate flavors
A beautiful paint to make a trio
has mysteriously been trailered in.
Will the other boys be standoffish as his
patches of chestnut and white contrast him?
I must not forget the gulls often gliding
above the sea and fields bordered by rock.
Along with the tiny and precious pied wagtail
who comprise my magnificent stock.
Last but not least in the animal kingdom
there is one more arrival
Perhaps to the jackdaw, who has been absent this morning
it will be an unwelcome rival?
The magpie has finally come back
to Clare from wherever it did roam.
The scene is now complete in Liscannor
a beautiful place we all call home.
Not a Whisper of Wind
It’s eerily calm. Heavenly so.
Not a blade of grass flutters.
Even the birds are not in flight.
Moy House is lost inside the mist.
The cows, my precious cows have returned.
But they’re hiding from view.
The sounds of the sea. There are none.
While the light goes from pink to blue.
The silence is pure in this perfect Clare moment.
When the soul knows where it dwells.
And where it is going.
It is already there.
Bonnie Bovine – Part 1
By Taba Dale
Kevin and I are back in Liscannor, after completing two Golf & Music Tours to St Andrews and the Highlands. Our golfers played many of the iconic, Top 100 courses during the day, while our musicians, Paul Carroll & the Begley Brothers, entertained every night in local pubs. The Auld Grey Toon (St Andrews) will never be the same, that’s for sure.
We were in Scotland for nearly an entire month, taking an extra week with our friends Jane and Roger Franklin, to visit the Isle of Skye, Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides, and South Uist.
Taba inside circle of Callanish Stones on Lewis
On the Trotternish Penninsula of Skye, we climbed the steep path to the large pinnacle of rock known as the Old Man of Storr. We explored the ethereal Callanish Stones on Lewis, which predate Stonehenge by 500 years.
Askernish: 11th hole, par-3, walking from Kevin’s tee (197 yds) to my tee (142 yds)
Back in County Clare…
Back in County Clare where Elsie & Lucy and the small herd of cows spend their days eating the juicy grass of Liscannor…
“Lucy, what do you think we should call the new girl?” Elsie asked.
“Oh, I don’t know. She’s so huge,” Lucy noted, spotting her large, white body grazing in the field.
The big new white cow grazing in the pasture
“Well, Batty the Battleship was what I call huge. She was so big and grey. I really miss her.”
“Me too Elsie,” Lucy agreed, “she was a dear sweet soul. She was an enormous help when we went to visit our cousins in France.”
“Oh please, don’t bring that up now,” Elsie mooed and hung her head.
“OK, so the giant white one — she is really a bonnie bovine,” Lucy said with a swish of her tail.
“Where did you come up with that? Have you been listening to our next-door neighbors?
“I did hear the brown-eyed American gal talk about Bonnie Prince Charlie,” Lucy confessed, “but apparently she doesn’t think he is so bonnie.” Brown Eyes said, ‘Maybe he was pretty, but he was an eejit and only escaped from Scotland after he botched the Battle of Culloden, by dressing up as an Irish spinning woman!’”
Elsie was aghast. “You know, Lucy, I’m really not political. Don’t get me started on that subject.”
“Sorry, sorry,” Lucy apologized. “But what about the monstrously big new white girl?
Elsie was pensive and then said, “She’s like a massive recumbent slab, isn’t she?”
“A what?” Lucy couldn’t believe her ears. “What in the world is that?”
Now it was Elsie’s turn to admit she was eavesdropping. “Must have been our human neighbors again — talking about seeing standing stones in the Outer Hebrides, and a stone circle in Daviot when they were in Aberdeen.”
Recumbent slab of stone circle, Longhead at Daviot, (Aberdeenshire) Scotland
Lucy shivered a little and asked, “Do you think they are into spiritual stuff?”
“Probably the gal is. The guy worships golf, so no, it would not be his thing.”
“Maybe our new white cow is spiritual too. What if we call her Daviot?”
Elsie concurred. “Good one Lucy. She deserves a very special name.”
Bonnie Bovine – Part 2
By Taba Dale
After a nice long chewing session and bedding down for the night, Elsie and Lucy are back at it again the next morning…
Bovine girlfriends resting in the morning sun
Elsie had been turning it over in her mind. She said, “You know Lucy, we may have gotten it wrong. Daviotette sounds like such a high falutin name. Maybe we should just call the big new girl Bonnie.”
Lucy mooed emphatically, “YES! She is a bonnie big girl.”
“It’s important that we name our herd mothers,” Elsie said with an air of finality. “OK, Bonnie it is, then!”
Lucy nodded her lovely red head. “Thank goodness Ladybug brought her name with her — the little ladybug riding on her face made her such a darling right from the start.”
Darling Ladybug
A wave of sorrow washed over Elsie. “So many of our girls leave us…”
“Besides Batty, there was Black Beauty, Lucy reminisced. “She wasn’t around long enough to gain any standing.”
“Yeah,” Elsie agreed, “she was too beautiful. She must have fetched a pretty penny.”
“Then, ya know, we do have another new calf who is the color of a penny,” Lucy hinted.
Penny coming to investigate the apple!
Elsie caught on. “Maybe we should call her Penny?”
Glad that Elsie took the hint, Lucy mooed, “I like it. I like it.”
Elsie gave it her stamp of approval. “Right, that’s settled — the big mother will be Bonnie and the adorable calf will be Penny!”
A beautiful paint to make a trio
