Day 3979: Farmer Joe and Ponderings.

"Future?": acrylics, collage

 

 Want music?

 

Click here: Mirian Makeba, pata pata

 click back on this blog here to listen while you browse, or not?

 

2GN2S

Meet the 11-year-old boy who fell in love with agriculture during the pandemic, and dreamed of becoming a farmer. Today he rents his own plot of land where he cares for chickens and breeds sheep. Joe Trofer-Cook’s passion for farming was sparked when he planted seeds in a new raised bed that his grandfather built for his seventh birthday.

A year later, after COVID hit, he began selling homegrown produce on a trolley outside the house, and saved “every penny” to buy three chickens.

Adding eggs to his produce market helped him earn enough to buy first four sheep—that he adorably named Rhubarb, Strawberry, Pumpkin, and Radish.

His mother, Clare Trofer, said that tending to his animals is a form of “therapy” for Joe who was diagnosed with autism during the lockdowns.

With the profit made from selling veg and sheep, Joe was able to rent a plot of land from a farmer in his English village of Billinghay, Lincolnshire. Over two years later, Joe now owns 37 sheep, 12 chickens, two cows and a Border Collie named Spud.

 “I was born to be a farmer—that’s what I say,” Joe quips.

Farmer Joe winning sheep at Wragby show

More information and a 2 minute video of Farmer Joe, here.

 

 

                 Today I sat at a long traffic light.

I noticed birds on all four traffic light extensions.

I knew there wasn't time to get out my phone.

I studied their line-up, all but two were facing east. 

I watched as a new bird came to add on ...

the end bird charged him until he flew off.

I wondered if that was his job or just his personality?

Do you ever notice the bird line up?

Why is it on just some traffic extensions?

Why do the majority face the same direction? 

Is it the wind, or the view or habit?

The same day I was pondering these questions,

I saw this artwork by Yoshinori Mizutani ...

The photographer Yoshinori Mizutani captures kawau 

birds perched on electric wires in Tokyo. The Kawau are large seabirds, not unlike seagulls, that were pushed to the brink of extinction in Japan in the 1970s due to pollution. But in recent years they’ve come back – with a vengeance.

For photographer Yoshinori Mizutani, the sight of these  huge birds perched on electric wires in Tokyo were both “visually shocking and at the same time breath-taking.” And they became the basis for a new series of photographs called Kawau. 

Mizutani photographed the birds in black and white as the perched on electric wires along Tokyo’s Tama River. The compositions, both beautiful and eerie, are reminiscent of musical notes, but also the Alfred Hitchcock film Birds. Mizutani’s new series is being turned into a photo book by the same name. His photographs will be on display later this month at IMA Concept Store on Tokyo from July 29 to September 24, 2016.

Hmmm, life's ponderings?  

 

 

 

A 4 minute video, Inside fireworks, here.

If you didn't get enough fireworks Tuesday here ya go!

Just because ...

Capped Heron

Saturday's Smiles ...

 

 

 

                             Thanks for coming by today ...