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The Persistent Winter

August 1, 2014 by Emma

IMG_3403 Perhaps it’s because I’ve been absolutely hibernating like a bear inside with a wee little newborn for so long, or perhaps it’s because I haven’t experienced a South Gippsland in a few years, traveling up north and then living in South Australia – but this Winter seems extra Arctic, extra dreary, extra long, dark and cold. Yesterday gale forced winds hit, the big gum trees swayed and bowed beside our little farmhouse. Today the air is icy and still, the forecast is for snow down to 500 metres. That’s us.

Our driveway is a quagmire of sloshiness, probably due to an increase in traffic with visitors for Eleanor, but everywhere I turn there seems to be mud, mud, mud. Our poor chooks are living in a mud pit and the short trip to the woodshed to re-stock my wheelbarrow requires gumboots.

IMG_3391 And Winter Goes On | She Sows Seeds IMG_3409

In the past week we’ve had sheep grazing the paddock around our house, newly sown down to pasture after three years of growing potatoes in the red soil. Nice to have ewes and their lambs bleating away nearby, not so convenient having to open and shut gates now on the driveway (a cattle grid is high on my wish list). The lambs are not so little anymore, feeding hungrily and often violently on their weary but patient mums – somehow I can relate. When Eleanor was born the paddocks were full of tiny helpless lambs, little white dots on the green grass of our rolling hills. I think every year now as lambing begins I will be reminded of those early days of Eleanor’s life – lucky for us we’re inside sheltering against that icy chill, and each year Eleanor will share her birthday with lots of lambs!

And so, we bunker down, still waiting patiently for that Spring sunshine to break through the long, cold, dark Winter that this year has brought us. I’m daydreaming about sunny afternoons in the garden with our blossom baby girl, days when I can dress her in short sleeved jumpsuits or not worry about her cold little hands. But in the meantime we’ll be right here by the fire, wearing many, many layers and looking out the farmhouse windows at those lambies growing bigger, just like another Winter babe comfortably nestled inside.

Filed Under: Farm Life, Seasons Tagged With: ewes, farming, Gippsland, lambs, sheep, winter

Previous Post: « A Room For Eleanor
Next Post: Winter By The Sea »

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Comments

  1. Emma says

    August 9, 2014 at 3:39 pm

    Oh how green it is though! Your blog makes me miss Victoria so much and wishing that my husband and I had listened to my father beckoning us to the south once again. Up here on the QLD/NSW border it is a vastly different scene. Browned off grass and dryness all around. The positive is absolutely stunning days. Snuggle up, their is no better ‘job’ than being a mum at home in the midst of a cold and dreary winter 🙂

  2. Dee says

    August 2, 2014 at 12:17 am

    “Quagmire of sloshiness” is my new favourite line to read and say.
    Although I’m glad of the bitumen and concrete that means it is not the case out my front door.
    Hoping Spring brings lots of sunshine and days in the garden for your little family.

  3. Lisa says

    August 1, 2014 at 1:22 pm

    I think this Winter has been extra chilly – and certainly extra wet where we are. But also, I birthed my baby in the middle of Winter too and found that I was constantly, super cold afterward – and it took me a little while to realise that I was probably feeling the cold more because I had lost my little internal heat pack and that being pregnant during Autumn/early Winter meant that I hadn’t adjusted to the cold as I normally would. Bring on Spring!

    • Emma says

      August 1, 2014 at 1:52 pm

      Ooooh good point! Could be the case. Getting up in the middle of the night in and out of warm bed also makes me feel extra chilly! Eleanor’s room isn’t overly warm, she still sleeps in her bassinet out in the lounge so hoping we can keep her squashed into there until warmer weather.

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Hello, I’m Emma

I am a farmer's wife, green thumb, baker of scones, grower of chubby babies and giant pumpkins.

She Sows Seeds celebrates rural living and our simple country life in a little old farmhouse in Gippsland, Australia. Read More…

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