the black and white cat

the white and black cat

sitting so still on the doorstep --

a yin yang doorstop

On the last morning of our stay at OUR Ecovillage, we go on the official tour of the 25-acre permaculture community grounds.

The first thing we're told is that we must close every gate so that the livestock won't get out, that is, all but the turkeys and geese, which wander freely.

In the barnyard, Brandy's daughter proudly shows us the eggs she's collected and how she feeds the chickens.

Cats and a live trap keep the mice away.

Two ewes are each nursing a pair of lambs.

If you're a red hen, sometimes you have to wait until the sheep finish eating from the blue feed bowl before you can peck up the last bits of grain.

One of the sheep stares through the fence at the strangers.

Violet the Jersey cow is also curious about the visitors.

Twin piglets napping in the straw get up and trot after their mother sow.

Ariel explains the compost system for recycling vegetable and human waste.

And Satya shows us the gardens.

There are many ongoing construction projects, using all sorts of materials, such as natural tree trunks, rammed earth and tires.

And different styles, include a yurt and a house built in a tree stump.

However, the hobbit is away on some adventure . . . .

on a rocky hill

on a rocky hill

white-faced black sheep with curved horns –

hiding, not hidden

Connemara, the rocky coast of County Galway, is wild and beautiful. Sheep are everywhere, beside the road, on the road, lying in the soft Irish grass, peering out from crannies among the rocks. There are so many rocks, so many sheep,we figure the sheep eat rocks.

late winter birth time

late winter birth time –

ewe with twin lambs, black and white,

huddling by her side

A week before spring equinox, still below freezing at night, but it is birthing time for many animals living in the open. This ewe wears her thick winter coat but the lambs are born with only a light fleece. When I appear she is cropping the new shoots coming up through the dead grass while the twins lie by her side. The lambs scramble to their feet and huddle on either side of their mother, who lifts her head and gives me a hard stare.

Avebury Circle

Avebury Circle –

one white sheep sleeps with her back

against the warm stone

Avebury henge is magical in many ways. The massive stone circles are oriented to the rising moon. The monoliths alternate between tall thin stones and short squat ones. Sheep grazing on the downs seem drawn to the stones, perhaps just for the shelter they afford or perhaps for the powerful energy they radiate.