January 21, 2011
Each day at lunchtime, I cut one Granny Smith apple into 12 bite-sized pieces for the boys.
Not surprisingly, right about then is when the Apple Mob emerges.
Fergus (doing his best James Cagney impersonation):
You better give me another apple slice, see?
Fergus: I know you have another slice, you dirty rat.
Everyone else (in unison): Oh Fergus, give it up, would ya? ♥
January 20, 2011
January 19, 2011
For the first time in our lives last week, Don and I saw a natural phenomenon called a Sun pillar.
To me, the Sun shone like a giant spotlight into the sky.
In reality, Sun pillars are vertical streaks of light that appear above and below a low Sun as it shines through clouds that contain ice crystals. The pillars are caused by sunlight reflecting off the surface of falling ice crystals.
Breathtaking.
January 18, 2011
When I said I was pretty sure this is a Mourning Dove, I was wrong. Au contraire, my friends… turns out she’s a White-winged Dove. Thanks, CeeCee!
No surprise, it’s all in the details. White-winged Doves have white stripes on their wings.
Eurasian-collared Doves are lighter in color and have napes ringed with a half-black collar. Mourning Doves are medium-sized with gray-brown wings with black spots.
Honestly, I would’ve never thought there were three unique dove species here at Morning Bray Farm. If I wasn’ t blogging, I might have never realized it. ♥
p.s. Don just looked at what I was blogging and asked me if the name of this post was going to be I’m suddenly obsessed with doves and I don’t know why. ♥
January 16, 2011
January 15, 2011
January 14, 2011
In the days before the average churchgoer could read, medieval churches held theatrical spectacles based on scriptural history to impress religious truths upon their congregations. One of these pageants, originally known as the Festum Asinorum (Latin) or Fête de l’âne (French) and now as the Feast of the Ass, commemorates the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt. It was (and is occasionally even now) celebrated on January 14.
Charles du Fresne, sieur Du Cange (1610 – 1688), French philologist and historian, describes the French Medieval Feast of the Ass in his Glossary of Medieval and Late Latin (Paris, 1678). The pageant begins, Du Cange tells us, with a solemn procession through the streets of the city. The principal players are a beautiful girl cradling an infant in her arms and the splendidly decorated donkey on which she rides. The donkey and his burden are escorted to the city’s principal church and placed near the high altar. Then follows a special mass in which, in place of the usual responses (“amen”), the congregation brays like an ass.
At the conclusion of the Mass, the officiating priest brays three times instead of reciting the usual “Ite, Missa est”; in turn, instead of replying “Deo Gratias,” the congregation cries, “Hinham, hinham, hinham” (hee-haw, hee-haw, hee-haw).
Excerpted from Sue Weaver, The Donkey Companion (Storey Publishing, 2008).
January 13, 2011
January 12, 2011
As I’ve listened to the dozens and sometimes hundreds of Canada Geese that come to visit our pastures each winter, I haven’t been able to shake the notion that their vocalizations remind me of chimpanzees. The drama!
Now I know why.
I would have never guessed so many, but researchers have identified about 13 different calls from Canada Geese, which vary from loud greeting/alarm calls to soft sounds from feeding geese.
Chimps have specific calls to signify food and danger, and each chimp has a distinctive hoot that distinguishes it from the others. Chimps too can have loud greeting/alarm calls and can have soft sounds while feeding.
Goes to show that no matter the genus or species, vocal communication can convey a variety of emotions and intentions and often serves to affect the behavior of those that hear what’s being said.
♥
January 11, 2011
Fergus: Watch this everyone. This is going to be funny.
Fergus: Ahm gunnah get Nigel to do thumthing silleh.
Nigel: Okeh, I’ll do it. But I’m not facing the camwah.
Fergus: Now that’s funny.
Fergus: That’s very funny.
Morning Bray Farm 