The Brown
This one is tiny bit nostalgic for me. When I think about my childhood, I was lucky to have opportunity to spend my summers at my grandparents home at countryside, middle of forest, running around in nature with farm animals and pets. Including two of the Latvian Browns that my granny loved and cared for dearly. Both of them were quite the characters. One was calm and peaceful, while the other one always found a way to kick the milk bucket over.
They were named after two Latvian rivers Venta and Gauja. According to my granny it was an old tradition to name cows after rivers so then they would produce more milk. I always adored the fact that my granny knew so much about old traditions such as that a branch of mountain ash should be left by the door of barn or home to keep evil spirits away or that flower crowns should have three times nine different types of flowers to have a rich and adventurous year.
Sounds very silly and pagan, but being so close and dependent of nature, it makes sense our elders had rituals and traditions to be wishful and thankful to the nature. Deep and sincere connection with nature forces was really important for them. It is tiny bits and pieces that I can remember, but I hold on to them with all my might for it seems like something precious. Wisdom from different time.
Over twenty years later there are under two hundred of the Latvian Browns left. Why? Today bigger beasts are imported from all around the world. Unfortunately they also produce a lot more milk than the Browns.
We even have special two euro cow coins and very popular milk candy called ‘Gotiņa’ (sweet way of saying cow in Latvian) to remember them.
Song of the day: Iļģi - Nesmejieti Jūs Ļautiņi (Latvian folk)
Just like the Latvian, traditional Indian breeds like Tharparker, Jaiswal have been replaced be other western jersey cows that produce more milk, but today people started realizing how much more healthy the milk from the traditional cows were. Hence, some started going back to these old breeds.
Nicely painted,the cow looks so peaceful!
It is the same here. I am not sure if they will be able to save them with less than two hundred animals left though.
Thank you so much for your kind words @backpackingmonk! :)
That has turned out really well, it was worth all the effort. She looks so peaceful and content with her crown of flowers.
Btw, are the candies good?
Yes, it was frustrating tiny bit there, but all in all I really enjoyed creating this one even with all the struggle.
Candies are really good. One of my favorite. Notes to make sure to give candies upon meeting :)
I don't care what anyone says, I always accept candy from strangers. =)
I've come to notice that traditions are one of the things our elders kept to so well.... My grandma used to put broom sticks inside calabash and keep on the front door too sprinkling ashes during some nights believed to be hunted by the evil spirits
Somehow I can't recall well enough whether there was something about broomsticks here as well.
I wish I had a chance to ask more about these things. I find them rather fascinating. ^^
Wow, that cow looks so relaxed:D
Yeah, it is pretty chill. Zoned out in the land of the greenest grass, you know? Haha!
If one day by some miracle I will be able to say that I have a family of my own I will definitely make sure to have fun traditions. As long as they are fun for all parties involved, they are the magic.
Woww muy similar a mi abuela sabe mucho sobre viejas culturas y me encanta oírla hablar sobre esas cosas, aprendo a diario conversando con ella y al parecer también puedo aprender mas sobre el tema leyendo tus post, saludos amigo @m31 saludos desde Venezuela :D
Saludos desde Letonia @josecrespo. Jajaja. Es interesante aprender sobre estas cosas.
That's quite interesting. In Bulgarian "gotina" would mean cool (for a female - the male version would be "gotin"). I wonder if there is any connection there.
I had no idea. ^^ Maybe some linguistics specialists could say more, but I guess there are some similarities and words in different languages looking the same. Not always meaning the same though. Hehe. Cool.
I love this one :) It fits so well with who you are, it does really seem to be a sweet, awesome memory. The cow seems really peaceful, i think it worked out well. The dots work quite well as fur. How much of the paper does it take up?
Aww thank you @emilclaudell! ^^ It is a precious one and really happy one as well.
I guess because it is sleepy sleeping? I just always loved how long the lashes and expressive their faces were. About half I would say :)
Esta hermoso amigo.
Muchas gracias :)
A tu orden, siempre al pendiente de tus contenidos, te invito a pasar por mi blog. Saludos.
Your post reminds me of a friend of mine who used to have two cows as pets when she was a teenager. She would play with them as you would with any dog... They were playful and sweet! She would even lie down with them on the grass and take a nap in the sun =)
I am now vegetarian because of this and many more stories. Knowing what happens in the world... What suffering these creatures go through while alive... All so that the human part of the world can satisfy its carnivorous indulgences has made me unable to eat meat.
I do know that I still like it, though. Which is why I'm rooting for companies like Memphis Meats in the USA, who are making In Vitro meat from stem cells. Once it becomes cheaper, I'm pretty sure it will become the world's main source of meat.