A spring sojourn outdoors freshened up our lives and added colour to pale young islander’s cheeks. It has been an extra wild season here on the nor’ west coast with bursts of sun, storms and rainbows stretched across whole valleys and into the sea. The farm in Flowerdale Valley is an ocean of vivid green pasture and the dairy herd have been labouring under cover in the rough nights. Their young sleep on straw floors of the shed.
The herd is now full, back on the track to the dairy. Raspy calf tongues suck our fingers like teats, far into their throats seeking milk from their mother’s udder. They recognise the slender warm feel of another. Big brown eyes are cheeky and warm while their heads nudge fruitlessly at the gate. Theses gentle animals bring us giggles, their mother’s milk is so rich it goes to the chocolate factory. The milk truck rolls in and the tractors cart silage along the tracks.
Dry beds and fireside meals at Currajong with family make worn faces smile and bring magic to farm work.
You can see the weather coming from miles away. The wind has been ferocious bringing with it crackling and thundering wet- weeks on end- onto the land. The old Spring tractor lies abandoned in the paddock, facing the elements. Sitting on the driver’s seat, the wind roared like an engine and little farmers hands shifted gears; imagination alight, making the rusted parts move about.
We race the clouds to find cover and pull coats around ears. The milk tank fills with some kind of natural wonder; real milk. The skies begin to clear for warmer days, rivers subside; their raging paths have quietened to the sea.
Lucy Taylor 