Well, it’s one of those days. I had a lovely post all completed and ready to go, something about a cool gadget, and it’s been swallowed whole by the ethers (the post, not the gadget). It’s a mystery. I can recreate it, but it will take more time than I have available right now.

So instead, I’m posting a few images of some of my favorite meadows around our village.

They grow wild every year. Sometimes they are used for grazing, some years they’re just left to their own wild devices.

The composition of wildlflowers is different with each year and each season. Some years have more purple. This year is trending yellow.

Each of the fields, even if they are only on opposite sides of the small country road, goes its own way when it comes to plant life.

And these are a few of the herbivore fertilizer units that populate the meadows at various times during the year. They are also the happy recipients of the meadowflowers and grasses that get cut and baled, once at the end of spring and once at the end of summer.

The local stud, that big white fellow in the middle, amongst a few of his admirers.

The air is alive with cowbells, birdsong and the hum of insect activity.

All in all, not a bad life for a dairy herd, or for the runner who passes them on a daily basis.