friday 5 at the farm: photos I didn’t take

I’m not alone, right? The best moments in your day seem to happen when neither a camera nor a smart phone is within reach? So in your excitement you try to tell people about it, but it never quite translates. Or you try to go back and reenact the magic but the magic has already dissolved.

This week especially, great stuff seemed to happen around me left and right and then never again. So for Friday 5 at the Farm today, I’m offering you five little scenes that deserve to be immortalized somewhere. On this blog in plain old words will have to do.

Chunk-Hi the Tire Flipper
In the front field are two massive, deeply treaded rubber tractor tires meant for nothing except the buffalo’s entertainment. A few months ago we actually swapped a broken down four-wheeler for them. Chunk-Hi loves these tractor tires almost as much as he once loved that broken down four-wheeler. He uses his thick, curved horns and dense bony forehead to pluck these seemingly weightless toys out of the sand and throw them in great big loops into the Oklahoma sky. He delights in this! Sometimes the tires never even hit the sandy wallows before our split-hooved boy catches them again and flips them back toward the heavens.

Well, one evening this week I was walking up the gravel driveway just in time to see just such an exhibition. It was thrilling. Chunk seemed to know I was watching, which prompted even more enthusiastic efforts. I ran inside to get my phone for nothing, because by the time I ran back outside he had abandoned his toys and just wanted kisses. Or cookies. Which I had not brought.

Geoffrey the Cat Naps on a Saddle
Thursday morning I was walking out of the east doors of the barn carrying a large green tub filled with hay. The air was icy but the sun was dazzling, the kind of brightness that will convince you of warmth that cannot possibly exist. I stopped with my face turned up to soak into my eyelids at least some sunlight and heard a gentle meow coming from the ground to my left. Still holding the tub of hay, I looked down and saw Geoffrey (our gray and white barn cat) folded up neatly on a discarded leather saddle. The saddle was partly collapsed on the dead grass, warmer I’m sure than any other perch Geoffrey could have chosen. I watched him stretch and flick his claws against the felty seat, his slender back a question mark. He meowed at me again and yawned, also tilting his eyelids sun-ward. Then his small cat body nestled itself perfectly in the shape of the saddle and he went to sleep. You know. For a cat nap.

Frozen Pond at Sunset
This particular beauty struck me at least four times just this week, and each time it was so stunning that I’m not even sad about missing the photo opportunities. The sun sets directly behind the pond this time of year, just barely south and west of it, with a ridge of oaks and cottonwoods there on the horizon. So whatever fiery kaleidoscope colors the sky is offering are reflected on the pond’s wet surface there. This week, with so many consecutive freezing days and nights, the pond has been milky-frosty, opaque, with waves and ripples suspended in time. You can easily imagine movement in the water, but it’s so perfectly still. It’s like the fierce Oklahoma winds did battle with the arctic air and lost, bowed out gracefully. The reds, oranges, and pinks of our magnificent sunsets are thrown into so many new textures, it’s really breathtaking. I have felt lucky to frequently be walking past an upstairs window just in time to see all this beauty.

My Best New Salad Invention
Honestly, I could easily have taken a photo of this salad. I almost did, really, but everyone keeps shaming me for being that woman who takes photos of all her food, and I am definitely susceptible to teasing peer pressure. So, trying to cut back. Anyway. The salad.
It was equal parts leafy green lettuce, raw spinach, and parsley. If that sounds like too much parsley, just trust me. It tastes amazing! I could literally feel my blood purifying with every bite. On top of your greens, slice up a small avocado and add just a fourth of a cup of toasted sunflower nuts. Splash the whole thing with lemon juice, add pepper, and enjoy. So good!! No need to use salt because the sunflower nuts are pretty salty already. Delicious and healthy. Enjoy!

My Handsome
He stands there at the bottom of the stairs dressed in a black button up shirt, starched and open at the throat, sleeves cuffed flat below his elbows, and dark wash jeans. His forehead is creased with pain from a tooth ache, and tides of stress, and exhaustion from not sleeping. Because of the tooth ache. And the tides of stress. His shoulders are broad and strong. Able to carry all the weight thrust on him every day, but growing weary. He is tall and muscular, with strong hands that grip me perfectly and green eyes that flash with anger, humor, and passion all at once. Those green eyes also try to hide a depth of loss neither of us ever expected to feel. He is protective, responsible, funny, affectionate, desperate, confident, and a little bit lost in this world. Just a little. But his vision will come through. The toothache will abate. His broad, strong shoulders will catch that one moment of relief he needs to square up again.

He stands there at the bottom of the stairs dressed in black, waiting for me to join him for our morning prayer. He is an innocent little boy and a strong civic leader, my husband and best friend, brother, father, neighbor, son. Past, present, and future all in this gorgeous body and Handsome face I have loved for so many years. And I will love him forever. Come What May.

If you don’t have a camera, friends, 
take pictures with your mind!
Tell me something beautiful with your words.
XOXOXOXO