Stubborn Cow

Brian mowed the lawn grass on Sunday and now the house yard is looking quite tidy and lovely in a wintery kind of way.

We bought a new mower last year and, as yet, I haven't used it. I suspect he wants to maintain the blades in good shape. ;)

While the sun poked through the clouds, I wandered about snapping photos. We're having a very wet winter and every drop is most welcome.

The leaves of this little Finger Lime tree were completely eaten by something the first time I planted it two years ago, so Brian dug it up, put it into a pot and placed it in the glass house. There it recovered and we planted it out in the open again in Autumn. It was covered in delicious little Finger limes which we ate with fish meals. I confess I wasn't very adventurous with them, but I'll try making more dishes with them next time they fruit. Practically all of the recipes I looked at were for sweet dishes, which I didn't want to make, or eat, so any suggestions for using them would be appreciated.

Yesterday morning, right at the end of milking the two cows, the milking machine motor threw a fit. It sounded like it was about to blow up and Brian was summoned from work. He confirmed my diagnoses and the only thing for it was to buy another motor from somewhere... in a hurry.
A quick look at suppliers of motors on the computer, and number one step-son (who happened to be on annual leave) made a quick trip to the City to make the purchase for us as neither of us could get away from work.
They both toiled at fitting the motor well into the evening, until it was running smoothly and I was confident to use it for milking this morning.
All was well early this morning, the milking shed and machine were all set up and ready to go. The cows were lined up in their regular order. Lavender is always first, so I opened the gate for her to walk up to take her position in the bales, but she got to the gate of the shed, stopped, sniffed, snorted and refused to walk into the dairy.
"Oooohh..... I'm not going in there," she said, "a stranger has been in there. I can smell him and I can smell his oil. Nope, definitely NOT going in there!"
She backed out and stood in the lane.
I tried to cajole her with bread.
I got behind her and used my gruff voice.
I picked up the "waving" stick.
I tapped her on the rump with the "waving" stick.
She walked a short way in, just enough that I could close a gate behind her.
That was a mistake!!
She turned herself around, saw that she was confined and took a flying leap over the gate.
She cleared it beautifully, except for her hind feet, which took the gate with her.
It was poetry in motion, but the gate is no longer a gate.
So Lavender got off without being milked, and must have been very uncomfortable with a full udder all day.

Daisy was too interested in the food she was about to eat, to bother about any stranger smells.
This evening after work, and with some temporary repairs to the gate, we both coaxed Lavender into the dairy by putting her halter on and leading her with a rope.
So I wonder if she will forget about stranger smells when it's milking time tomorrow morning?