Out and About on a Beautiful Day

After a spell of cold, cloudy weather, we've had a return to summer. It was a good day to go and rake manure in the pasture. All summer long, I took the blue sky and sunshine for granted, but on a day like yesterday, when you're not sure how many more the year holds in store, you just have to lie back on the grass, look at the mountain and listen to the wind.

I came across three empty birds' nests on my circuit of the field -

I also found puffballs growing -

Unfortunately, they were all past their best, so I didn't bring any home for dinner. Our horses used to like to eat the little ones in the field. Lately, there's been a bumper crop of what I take to be field mushrooms, but I've never picked field mushrooms here, so I'm not risking it. The only mushrooms I'm confident about in this area are puffballs and chanterelles. Home in Scotland, my Dad and I used to gather field mushrooms, horse mushrooms, puffballs, chanterelles, wood ear, boletus, shaggy inkcap, and others.

The dogs accompanied me on my manure-raking expedition. Here is Roger, the lost Schnauzer (only I guess he's pretty much ex-lost) -

My most faithful companion was the intrepid and aptly-named Amigo, a friend's chihuahua whom we're babysitting this weekend. There were some hawks circling in the distance, which made me think - uh oh, he is a very burly, tough little chihuahua, but really he's not that much bigger than a rabbit, is he? I was glad he stuck close, and I kept checking the sky.

When we got back to the house, there was George, demanding to be taken out -

Observe the dog gap between the posts.

George had half an hour of grazing, then it was Bridget's turn. There are delicious wild chives growing in the lawn, thanks to the extended period of no mowing, caused by the drought. Bridget ate them with relish.

Then my daughter went to her Homecoming dance, chauffeured by a friend's father, in the following vehicular conveyance:

Oh, and we began the day with a seminar at the alpaca farm down the road. Those are some strange and endearing creatures. Fortunately, I am not tempted to get any.