Monday, December 11, 2017

Poem for Monday and Rural Frederick

First Sight
By Philip Larkin

Lambs that learn to walk in snow
When their bleating clouds the air
Meet a vast unwelcome, know
Nothing but a sunless glare.
Newly stumbling to and fro
All they find, outside the fold,
Is a wretched width of cold.

As they wait beside the ewe,
Her fleeces wetly caked, there lies
Hidden round them, waiting too,
Earth's immeasureable surprise.
They could not grasp it if they knew,
What so soon will wake and grow
Utterly unlike the snow.

--------

I had a very nice, busy Sunday! We picked up Adam in College Park and went to Brunswick, where we had lunch at Beans in the Belfry (I had an egg-and-hummus croissant and we shared praline and chocolate pie), then went to look at antiques. Our intention was to visit the Frederick farm festival stops we missed because of snow, but it turned out most of them were closed, so we only went to South Mountain Creamery for cows and eggnog, then to Kiparoo Farm where the barn shop wasn't open but we got to see the sheep. We also shopped a bit in Middletown before coming back to our county.

My parents took us all to dinner at Not Your Average Joe's (I had my usual favorite, the goat cheese and raspberry salad, plus they gave me ice cream cake for my birthday) before we drove Adam back to College Park to finish out the semester in the next couple of weeks. We made it home in time for Madam Secretary and the end of the Ravens-Steelers game, which has turned into a nail-biter -- we missed Washington's game entirely but I'm told that we didn't actually "miss" anything much. Here are photos from lunch, the creamery, the already-snow-free sheep farm, and dinner...more tomorrow!

17frdr1

17frdr2

17frdr3

17frdr5

17frdr4

17frdr6

17mbdy1

17mbdy2

No comments: