In This Issue...

Kiko always makes me smile. There are some dogs that are sullen, and some that cling. But Kiko just smiles. Here's Kiko in the garden, with Marjorie holding his ball over my head. Never would have guessed.

Our daughter, Chase, bought two of the ugliest pigs in the world --- kune kunes from New Zealand. One of these ugly pigs managed to mate with the second ugliest, a Gloucester Old Spot. This beauty is their love child. Chase, of course, has moved off to Australia, leaving us with this gorgeous memory. Summertime in the Whitecroft mud.

The dictionary says silage is "fodder harvested while green and kept succulent by partial fermentation." We have large black plastic bags of the stuff. The Highland cows think it's great: they dig their horns into it, and then proudly display the silage hanging on their horns like Christmas decorations. Today our silage looked like large pebbles in a stream. Each bag is about five feet tall.

We had a booth at the Wag and Bone Show in Windsor a few weeks ago, and we sold haddock ice cream cones to dogs. It was great fun watching owners feed ice cream to their companions. Some dogs gobbled the ice cream and cone in one huge bite, others licked the ice cream. This dog enjoyed his cone, but he just has such a sad expression.

In some Buddhist temples, you pay a little bit to buy a bird in a cage, and then have the joy of releasing it. Yesterday we took our 20 Khaki Campbell ducks -- ducks that have lived in a stable, and have spent every day in a grassy field -- and we released them onto our 1/4 acre pond. First time they'd been on water, other than in small pools. Yes, the fox may get some of them. But I think this is a choice they'd make if they could.

We have bronze turkeys on the farm, with feathers so shiny you can tell why they're called "bronze." But some of their offspring are snowy white, with feathers like swan down. We're told that somewhere back in time our bronze turkeys were interbred with white turkeys. They're like swans with attitude.

We took about twenty photographs of Kiko for our dog food label. First Marjorie had to give Kiko a big, red kiss --- yes, a real one (not a Photoshop creation). And then I started clicking. Kiko is a born model. He even managed a wink.

Almost a full moon tonight. I took my camera with me when I went to put the chickens to bed. The two doors to their coop looked so inviting, and the glow of the city lights from Worcester reddened the horizon. I'm reminded of a children's book where the woodcutter's cottage (or was it the witch's) glowed in the night forest.