farms | Saying nothing in particular

I love the happy faces of well-kept barns, don’t you? I couldn’t get close enough to take a picture of the actual doors without going through the cow pen which would have been trespassing (as well as very messy).

I bet you think I took this picture out in farm country, right? Actually we were on the campus of the University of Maryland, about 20 minutes from downtown Washington DC. This is “The Farm” where agricultural students learn all about animal husbandry.

The students not only tend the cows, sheep, pigs, chickens and horses but they’re also famous for their hand-churned ice-cream. I’ve never encountered a working farm in the middle of a university campus but I definitely like the idea. I can’t think of anything more stress-reducing before finals than having a conversation with a pig. Can you?

Check out Norm’s #ThursdayDoors challenge. It’s always interesting to see doors from around the world.

The last couple of weeks have been so stressful that I ended up in bed dying. Or so I thought. In retrospect it was probably a good thing as it stopped me from rushing into many decisions I might live to regret.

Tilden

On Sunday (aka Mother’s Day) we decided to drive over to Tilden, a 2,017 acre park straddling the hills between Berkeley and my small town of Orinda California. The park boasts an antique carousel, a child’s size steam train, a reedy lake for swimming, hilly golf course, botanical gardens, a small farm, and of course oodles of hiking trails and picnic areas. Tilden1

When I was a child there was nothing I loved more than a carousel. One ride around was never enough. I could ride all day, round and round to the sound of an organ and had to be dragged back to solid ground crying when it was time to go. I dreamt of visiting every carousel in the world and even of having one in my backyard when I grew up.

My children were happy with only a couple of rides and on Sunday my granddaughter only wanted one. It’s a sad thing when a girl doesn’t beg for one more ticket to ride the carousel. What is the world coming too?

Not exciting enough for kids these days.

Not satisfied with a beautiful, albeit, plaster palomino, Audrey wanted to find a real horse so we went to the farm. The Little Farm is in a beautiful pine grove but alas there were no horses.

Cow There was a cow.