Cows and other livestock

Came across a small herd of cows on Culver Down on the day of the kestrels (see the postcript to reference 1), a herd which caught the eye because all the adults seemed to have long pointed horns, not always curving the same way left and right. The cows with the crumpled horn of the well known nursery rhyme and which give the name to many pubs, for example that at reference 2.

Given that my understanding is that cows with horns are apt to damage each other, particularly when in transit, why had the horns been left on the cows? Did the farmer concerned think that the business of burning them out of young calves was cruel and abhorrent? Did he show the cows, for which purpose they had to be entire? For myself, I would not be very happy about walking with them. Luckily, the cows in our field did not have horns. BH was not bothered either way, being a good deal bolder than I where large animals are concerned.

It was also the day of a slightly odd experience in a tea shop. The bill for tea and cake came to £5 and some odd pennies. I tendered £10 and some odd pennies, not quite the right amount, while chatting to the shop keeper, a lady from the western island. She gave me the odd pennies due and then paused, while continuing to chat. I started to wonder whether I had given her £5 or £10. Had the thought that the bill could not possibly have been £10. So I waited, and after a bit she seemed to recollect herself and came up with the missing fiver. Talking about it afterwards, BH had had exactly the same thought, that the shop keeper was trying it on, trying to short change me of my fiver. So I am reasonably sure that she was, the sort of theft that is impossible to prove. Although if several people have the same experience and compare notes, one might stop using the place. Or devise some way of telling her that you know what she is up and that she should desist, without going so far as making an accusation out loud.

Over the years, the same sort of thing has happened in TB from time to time. Particularly irritating that the people at a place one uses regularly should think it OK to try it on in that way. Particularly in pubs, when one is perhaps not in the peak of condition, one is trusting the pub keeper not to take advantage.

Back at my tea, the insult was compounded by the milk being off, curdling rather than dissolving in the tea. This we did complain about and after a while, after the husband had returned with some fresh milk, I got a fresh tea. In the meantime, passed the time with a very pleasant couple from Yorkshire who passed their summers on the island, in a caravan, courtesy of an early retirement pension from the gas board.

Strolled around the fort on the point and then back to the Culver Haven Inn for a perfectly respectable lunch of sausage and mash, the sausages being distinguished by having been skinned. Good texture, somewhat spoilt by a strong flavouring of herbs, which I do not approve of, at least in sausages.

And so on down to the beach at Yaverland, where in due course we took a swim, in among the activities of people with jet skis and of people zooming about with parachutes. The former being rather noisy and the latter rather careless in the way that they zoomed in among the swimmers. Some of their boards came with keels and I would not have cared to be caught by one.

But I should not moan. Yaverland remains our favourite beach on the island.

PS: the aforementioned kestrels tended to hang about on the hedge line, on the horizon, on the snap above.

Reference 1: http://www.psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/tweet-tweet.html.

Reference 2: http://www.crumpledhornpub.co.uk/.

Reference 3: http://culverhaven.com/. Suspected of not making a terribly good living, despite the fine views, not getting enough trade in season to carry them over the slack times of out of season.