WILC #2 {Neighbourly Love}

XingfuMama hosts Whatsoever Is Lovely Challenge. It’s only #2 so it must be a pretty new challenge started while I was on hols. Give her a visit and see what it’s all about.

This past week, I attended the funeral of a neighbour and although the passing was not out of the blue, I was still deeply saddened by the fact he is gone.

We came to our home in the valley 7 years ago this month and he and his wife have been amazing neighbours giving out a lifetime of advise about all sorts of things living on the land tends to throw at you and which we had no experience with….at all. He very generously welcomed us to take our fertile cows over the road to spend a day or two with his stud Angus bull, Glen……we had 4 calves from those visits. I always remember one time, when we struggled to get our cow away from her excursion, he suggested I enter the paddock and encourage her out with an apple or two…..”what if the bull chases me?” “Nah, just have to run fast”, he said seriously. “Oh, No, I’m not doing that! I can’t run fast at all…my hubs can do it”. Well, would you know it, Glen the bull was NOT impressed that the humans were invading his love nest and took chase…..I’ve never seen my hubs run so fast whilst trying to hold on to his hat. He made it over the fence at the other end of the paddock but the neighbor and I had a good giggle at his expense! We eventually got our cow separated from Glen and back to her own paddock and herd.

Mr. Neighbour was often heard before he was seen puttering around his farm on his beloved tractor, nicknamed, Fergie. Quite often he would drive her right up to our front door and drop off something or other…..once it was a rather lovely pumpkin, another time a few home grown potatoes or flowers from his wife’s garden that she had picked for me, or even, ‘delicious weeds’, that only cows found palatable.

It is helpful to have these memories and thankfully Mrs. Neighbour is still over the road and I hope she will stay on for some time yet. She is a treasure and I am extremely fond of her.