The first weekend my students were here, I took a walk down to Darts Farm, the local emporium of all things local and/or awesome, and prowled around making eyes at the cows. The funny thing about cows is that if you stand near their fence, they'll come over and stare at you pretty soon. It looks like curiosity in their faces, but I don't know whether that's really what they experience when they stand and look so stolidly.

These are the cows I can see grazing in the field visible from my bedroom and living room. They amble about, sometimes all day long. Two days ago, though, they were in another part of their realm, and all the Canada geese were hanging out in their field instead. Two swans flew in and menaced one of the geese until it flew away, with the two swans flying in hot pursuit. But the funny thing is that soon they had circled back, and there was a third swan, and the goose seemed to be flying right along with them, no problems.