"The Shortening Winter's Day"

 

I happened upon this painting, The Shortening Winter's Day, by Scottish painter Joseph Farquharson, a few days ago. It would have been perfect in December before the Solstice, but if I turn it around and think of it as The Lengthening Winter's Day, it is perfect for today, the 103rd anniversary of my mother's birth.

Because, as I've written before, it has long seemed to me the proverbial January Thaw often occurred around Mom's birthday. Unfortunately that's not happening today. It is 4° now with a forecast high for the day only 8°. But the days are lengthening as they always do by her birthday and soon it will be spring. 

I fell in love with this painting the moment I saw it, perhaps because it has been reproduced thousands of times on Christmas cards and in magazines, or just maybe, more likely, because it reminds me the small herd of sheep and lambs I had in the early 80's.

Mom told me that when they were first married she and Dad had a few sheep that they kept in the chicken house and pen. I don't think they had them very long. I think there was a story about not being able to keep them in - that they were always escaping and Dad got tired of chasing them down. At any rate, they were long gone and replaced by chickens by the time I was old enough to remember.

I had raised pigs on my own several different times before I got sheep. And why sheep? I think it was because I had a larger acreage. 

Anyway, lambing in the cold winter months and then caring for the ewes and lambs is an experience I will never forget - including the time the entire herd escaped. 

(The photo is of my first grandchild with some of the ewes and lambs behind him.)

Maybe I'm romanticizing the painting and my memories of that time in my life - or maybe both are as charming as I see them on this cold, but lengthening, winter day.