I love little country lanes (no matter that they;re only half a kilometer long) |
It never ceases to amaze me
how the seasons here shift according to the calendar. Like picture book magic:
You turn the page, and when it says it should be fall, ‘kachingg’, fall starts.
Temperatures drop overnight, the discoloration of leaves starts, and pumpkins
suddenly turn orange. In Holland, fall
starts somewhere in summer, although sometimes summer can extend into fall, and
you can have a spring with snow. The lines are ‘flou’, but not over here. The
seasons are punctual, which is rather un-Lebanese, come to think of it.
Home on the Range: Rosa (seriously, that was her name) looking at her friends. |
I spent the last two days up
in Laqlouq for work, and up in the mountains the change is even more
pronounced. It’s long-sleeve weather in the evening, and nature is changing its
hue.
I encountered some cows. You
don’t see a lot of cows in Lebanon, other than the ones you see on the highway in
trucks, being hauled from the port straight to the butcher. Lately I’ve been seeing
a lot of Brahman
cows being transported. I wonder where they get them from because we do not
have them in Europe.
Nature changing her (its?) hue |
Anyway, I encountered cows.
Scrawny little fellas, they were. This is not exactly cow country, because a
cow needs to eat about 3% a day in their body weight. These were about 550
kilos, so about 16 to 17 kilos of grass per cow. Except, there is no grass here
because of the lack of rain. You’ll need
to feed them other things, which costs money, and so you end up making
virtually no money. The cows in Laqlouq belong to a farm called La Vallee Banche, which
is part of a touristic project, and I think they make more money giving cow
milking & cheese making workshops then on the actual milk they produce. The
Jesuit priests down in Tanaayel have a nice collection of cows as well.
Tete a tete with Rosa |
But I come from cow country, and I
like cows. Their smell, their warmth, their wet noses, the fact that they can stick their own tongue in
their nostrils and lick their snot, I mean, what’s not to like about cows?
Fall
is in the air, my phone is (finally) fixed, and life is good. Now if only I can figure out why my Internet connection is sooooooooooo o o o o o o o o o o incredibly slow.
1 comment:
Hello and welcome back Sietske!!!
I am glad to see you back and to see your blog which brings me happiness and joy every time I see it.
I hope you had a nice summer vacation with your family and friends.
Keep up the good work and expecting to hear and see your new discoveries of parts of our country.
Enjoy the week ahead.
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