Drawing water from the well -

"The Farmer's Wife"
digital collage by Mick Mather

Lately I've been reminiscing about summer days when I was a boy and taking great delight in walking through the pastures, meadows and woods of my grandparents small farm. Walking, especially at a young age, is just about the only manner of transport convenient to hand, and foot if we press the point. Seeking the right walking stick, the best path, flushing pheasant from the tall grass, listening to bird and bee. All of this while accompanied by a faithful dog, a barn cat or two and the scolding voices of squirrels, jays and the red winged blackbird. How then to document walks that only exist as memories? Around the next bend, perchance, we'll have an opportunity to ask the farmer's wife.

Thursday Challenge: Pets -

"Taffy"
digitally manipulated photograph by Mick Mather

Pets is this week's theme at Thursday Challenge so I went rummaging through the stacks looking for some of the beautiful animals I had while growing up. Taffy, named for his creamy, copper color was a Cocker Spaniel with one of the most even tempered personalities I can recall of any dog that my maternal grandmother picked for us from a particularly large litter. He was one of her best stud dogs and, for my father, the absolute best bird dog you've ever seen in the field. I recall many an enjoyable weekend walking through boggy woods in waist hight cattail and foxtail with dad and that dog. You could see the waving stalks as Taffy worked right to left and back again, ever outward, flushing out game cocks and hens. Every once in a while you'd see this dog jump straight up in the air, spinning to get his bearings and to assess the direction my father was walking in. Sadly, he had epilepsy and didn't last more than a decade or so, but while we had him, what a sweet, loving pet he was.