Beautiful but cold. I have mingled emotions towards snow and cold weather, and I cannot make up my mind. The sunsets have a rare beauty, even if I cannot be outside to witness them for long.

Beautiful but cold. I have mingled emotions towards snow and cold weather, and I cannot make up my mind. The sunsets have a rare beauty, even if I cannot be outside to witness them for long.

A beautiful early morning. It isn’t often I manage to rise with the sun in summer, but this time I was close. On my way to the cows, the sun greeted me in such a splendour that it struck me with awe.

I went out to check on the cows. I found them in their favourite place, a hill where the wind could blow more freely. I wonder if they also like the view. I go there for both the view and for the peaceful atmosphere. Small and bigger woods are followed by fields in a pittoresque pattern which makes it special.


One of the best aspects of summer is to be able to go by bike, to run or to walk to the different pastures where our cows are grazing.

I often go partly through the forest and partly by road. It is lovely to follow the road and watch the butterflies in the flowers.

On one occasion a butterfly decided to rest on my hand, a beautiful moment.

On my way to catch the horses which had found a much better field to graze in than their winter paddock, I passed the lake. Just a simple moment of beauty, the little house, the sky and the relection of the bushes and the clouds on the surface. A lack of time to contemplate, simply to receive, be grateful and to continue… Farmlife.


Spring is here and with it gardening. My favourite time. Toby enjoys it in his manner, eating a bone. I enjoy my time with the first sowing in the cold frame. Sallad and celery are the first crops. Next in time are carrots, parsnip, and dill. But that will be in the field.

I took a morning walk together with Toby. The mist has always attracted me in its fairytale atmosphere, always a little mysterious.

Arriving to the old barn, gray and sombre, we took a pause enveloped by the saturated air, and looked at the beauty.

Then back again, the mist almost vanished by the sun.


I walked across the pasture and found the young animals on the hill where a young boy once had a dream of building his own house. A dream unfulfilled. A field still with grass and flowers, witnessing of solitude.
Perhaps it is a too strong word, paradise… However there are moments when beauty reveals itself a little more than usual, the response is awe and joy. I was late with work and took the opportunity to give the cows water during the evening. Standing there while the drinking troughs were filling up, I witnessed the evening play of the lambs. I love to see them play. The sun was setting and shone with a warm yellow light on the hill while the lambs, quite unaware of the light, had found a stone of interest to climb up and jump off from. The restfulness of the windless evening the light green colour of the newly sprung leaves and the evening light, created a sense of paradise; beauty, peace, joy, and of course goodness.

Nature is shifting its appearance, winter is in the process to change into spring. Late winter and early spring are both present: The snow is still here and the nights are cold, but the sun warms the ground during the day, softening the ground and melting the snow, making it slowly give way to earth and dead straw.

This evening gave perhaps the most beautiful sign of spring. I was out walking with Toby, and as we were almost home I heard the blackbird a little hesitantly, in the forest. We stopped and listened, rejoicing in the beautiful song.

Yesterday he came much closer and there was no hesitation in his voice. I was out removing old fence net in the corner of a big field some hundred metres from the farm. The fence streched along the forest edge of the pine forest on the other side of the ditch. As I stood there with the sun shining on my left side, he began to sing in a tree very close to me. His song echoed in the forest and together with the sunshine, epitomized the reasons why I have chosen this life.
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A personal blog of a plant lover
Flores Island · Azores
From Where I Stand...