An Unkindness of Ravens

It's been another age since I posted anything. I go out and take pictures, but when I look at them later I can't seem to find a narrative to go along with them, so there they sit. I am still trying to rest my leg, which makes my days much more sedentary than usual. It's still raining off and on, which makes for some pretty skies between storms.

The little sun breaks make magic on the trees, even when the rest of the sky looks ominous.

Here's a shot of pond scum as art. It's not really pond scum, but from a distance that's what it looks like.

I thought the swirly pattern was pretty cool. It's not actually on a pond, but a slough, and when the water moves with the tide, it pulls these tiny plants around. There were tiny black bugs darting on the surface, but even zoomed in as far as I could, and with my phone as close to the water as possible without me falling in, I didn't manage to capture one of them. I did get a nice reflection of the clouds in the water, though.

The goats have eaten about all they can reach and need to be moved. Since I am trying to be kind to my leg, I've just been feeding them every day. But with the rain and the lack of yummy things to browse on, they have been very bored. Yesterday when I showed up to feed them, I discovered that their fence had come down and they were all missing. I wasn't too worried because I know the property really well by now and there's nowhere they can really go. When they heard me shut the car door and call them, they all came trotting out of the barn. Well, almost all of them. The first thing I do when I get there every day is count them. If anyone is missing, I have a medium to serious panic attack until the errant goat is located. Yesterday I counted nine goats when there should be ten. Jeckle was missing. I got the goats back where they belong by giving them grain, and put their fence back up while they were eating. Then I heard the panicked yell from the depths of the barn. I opened the door and there was little Jeckle, wandering around the huge barn all by himself, wondering where all his friends had gone. When he saw me he came running, and he was reunited with the herd.

It was nice and dry today, so against my better judgement and the orders of my doctor, I clipped some berry vines and pulled them down where the goats could reach them. My doctor tells me I should avoid uneven ground. Ha. The guys were very excited to have some snacks they didn't have to work for, and I am now resting with my leg occasionally elevated, so I guess everybody is happy. Except Screech, who is very upset that my visits have been so short lately.

They got hay and grain today in addition to the vines I pulled, so hopefully they will be happy until I can get them moved.

I will close with a few shots of a spider I've been watching for several days. She has camped on the back patio, and I watched her build her original web. She caught a bee yesterday, and the interior of the web was destroyed when she removed it. Today she was rebuilding, and I got up close and watched her. If I knew how to post videos, I would have taken one. It is an amazing thing to watch a spider weave. They are incredible engineers.

I wish I could do anything as well as she can do this!

I checked on her progress when I got home, and she had finished it but something had already broken a hole in it. She doesn't seem concerned, though. She's just patiently waiting for dinner.

As I was writing this post, I could hear ravens yelling in the skies and had to go see what they were up to. They were up pretty high and weren't paying any attention to what's going on down here on the farm, but the chickens seemed a little nervous. My title is the official name for a flock of ravens, and I think it's beautiful even if a tiny bit unfair to them. Have a great weekend, everyone!