Thinking ahead to dandelions

I like winter, but sometimes I look out over all the snow and think wistfully of how it felt to walk barefoot on warm grass. I'm pretty sure the cows spend their time almost exclusively in the present tense, but they kick up their heels and throw their necks around when they get out on pasture for the first time in the spring.

This is Urny. She's Ursina's daughter and Ursula's mother and this image was supposed to be a poster explaining why our milk gets yellow in the summertime (Guernsey cows are really good at passing along the color and flavor of their feed in their milk, especially fresh grass and dandelions).

Urny is a sort of hard name to explain in a short little paragraph and I couldn't get around it and the poster never materialized. Maybe this summer we can take a nice picture of Fern, or Sylvia, or Savannah, or Tatiana, or Maisy, or Honey or Ambrosia or Sweet Pea or Popcorn or Nettle. But not Urny, or Ratley, or Butter or Cream or Natty or Neatha, or Sprocket or Ullie. Well, maybe Sprocket. You see, the person who finds the calf gets to name her, with a name beginning with the first letter of her mother's name. That person is usually Earl and most of the time he comes up with really nice names. Other times, something odd will pop into his head and he'll just go with it and move on. Over the years, I have sometimes tried to make suggestions, but Earl always says the same thing, "So-and-so is due to calve later this week. You can do all the milkings until then and you can name her calf." This summer, when the grass is warm, I hope I'll find a few calves. I've got some good names in mind.