The Hungry Cow and Ornary Turtle

I did something I’ve not gotten the chance to do in quite a while with all this busyness pulling hard at my sanity–I got lost a few miles from my house. Driving home I took a left where I’ve never taken a left before, an intersection I’ve gone by since I was in third grade and never took the time to discover.

The winding twisting back roads of Ghent took me to some amazing places… I took over a hundred photographs–barns, farmhouses, windmills, dandelions. But the most memorable was a brief encounter I had with a hungry cow and an ornary turtle.

I first passed the cow (whom I will refer to as Ferdy, short for Ferdinand, in loving memory of Ferdinand the pacifist bull) while cruising for barns down a dirt road behind the old Kingdom Hall in Ghent. I pulled over, grabbed the camera and a handful of tall grass from the side of the road. Ferdy approached cautiously at first (photo). When it became obvious that I was not going to grab her udder, she because quite a bit more curious (photo). THEN I showed her the grass, and she let me know she was willing to do ANYTHING to get it (photo). She checked it out to make sure it wasn’t just a handful of plastic straws–they don’t eat plastic straws (photo). I wasn’t going to make it easy, considering I wanted a good shot (photo). Then came the disgrace, yellow tongue flailing, making the most ungodly noises (photo).

I bid them all farewell and made it only a short ways down the road before I came upon this old guy (photo). He was not happy with me. I got some great shots and thanked him before he flipped his tail at me incredulously and lumbered into the woods.

I captured so many great barns and landscapes today that I just don’t have time to put them all up. I’ll have to trickle them in as I find time. They’re processed and ready to post, so keep an eye on the photoblog as there will be a great influx of photos over the next couple of days.

Vive le photographe!