wool·gath·er·ing
[woo
l-gath-er-ing]
–verb
woolgathering. (n.d.). Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition. Retrieved May 22, 2011, from Thesaurus.com website: http://thesaurus.com/browse/woolgathering
Mother's Day*... what does it mean to you? The word Mother is "loaded" anyway. Ask anyone what the word mother means to them, and you are off on a very long, involved, maybe even Freudian adventure.
In my New Hampshire farm days, Mother's Day weekend was a busy one. Because I had sheep, was a shepherd and sold my wool to other hand spinners, Mother's Day meant going to the Sheep & Wool Show in New Boston, NH. There in an outside horse stall, I would- for two days, sell my wool to new and returning customers. My children's dad would help me unload, set up, then drive back to the farm to do the chores. I would be busy greeting and visiting with people until half the day was over.
Sometimes my Mom would drive up from Massachusetts and stay overnight. Sunday we would have a Mom's Day breakfast, then back to the Sheep and Wool festival, where we would celebrate with a lamb kebab, and good conversations with friends. It was a good life.
Now things are a lot different. I live 2,000 miles away from New England. But that doesn't mean I don't celebrate Mother's Day... I went wool-gathering...
...buffalo wool gathering!
At Custer State Park the buffalo are shedding their wool- and dropping babies!
It is so nice, after a decade, to finally becoming attuned again to the rhythm again of the seasons.
the buffalo are itchy now...
...VERY itchy!
Babies
and mothers...
are EVERYWHERE!
...and so is their wool.
on every tree, rock, and wallow-
lots of it!
As I drove through Custer State Park, I was reminded of how beautiful is the natural world out here.
How harsh...
...and sometimes tragic.
Still, this day for me was about life, growth, renewal, down-gathering and beautiful scenery...
Mother's Day itself was beautiful, too...
...the plum blossoms were everywhere- their heady scent the promise of future fruit- in abundance.
On Mother's Day Sunday, JhonDuane's family had a Mother's Day barbeque. Before the meal we went out to the buffalo pasture, where we practiced 'deadly force!
My bullet hole was the second one down from the top (middle).
I thought that was pretty good for a beginner.
But- where you see the double holes, is where Jhon shot through his first hole-- on PURPOSE!
Pretty danged amazing, I'd say!
The horse herd looked pretty bored with the whole thing, though...
After that, it was definitely TIME TO EAT!
...home-cooked, and DELISH!
Of course, besides the Moms, there were babies, too...
...and kids...
...and Uncles, Dads, Grampas, Aunties, Grammas, Nephews, Nieces.
It was a wonderful South Dakota Mother's Day- full of love and sharing!
...My children...
Bryn and Hilary--
weren't there, but- as always-
are in my heart.
1.think about seriously.
2.gathering of the tufts of wool shed by sheep and caught on bushes.
Synonyms: brood over, chaw, consider, contemplate, delay, deliberate, examine, figure, hammer away at, linger, meditate, moon*, muse on, ponder, pore over, procrastinate, rack one's brains, reflect, review, revolve, ruminate, stew over, study, sweat over, think over, turn over, weigh.
Antononyms: ignore, neglect
Mother's Day*... what does it mean to you? The word Mother is "loaded" anyway. Ask anyone what the word mother means to them, and you are off on a very long, involved, maybe even Freudian adventure.
In my New Hampshire farm days, Mother's Day weekend was a busy one. Because I had sheep, was a shepherd and sold my wool to other hand spinners, Mother's Day meant going to the Sheep & Wool Show in New Boston, NH. There in an outside horse stall, I would- for two days, sell my wool to new and returning customers. My children's dad would help me unload, set up, then drive back to the farm to do the chores. I would be busy greeting and visiting with people until half the day was over.
Sometimes my Mom would drive up from Massachusetts and stay overnight. Sunday we would have a Mom's Day breakfast, then back to the Sheep and Wool festival, where we would celebrate with a lamb kebab, and good conversations with friends. It was a good life.
Now things are a lot different. I live 2,000 miles away from New England. But that doesn't mean I don't celebrate Mother's Day... I went wool-gathering...
...buffalo wool gathering! At Custer State Park the buffalo are shedding their wool- and dropping babies!
It is so nice, after a decade, to finally becoming attuned again to the rhythm again of the seasons.
...VERY itchy!
Babies
are EVERYWHERE!
...and so is their wool.
on every tree, rock, and wallow-
lots of it!
As I drove through Custer State Park, I was reminded of how beautiful is the natural world out here.
How harsh...
...and sometimes tragic.
Still, this day for me was about life, growth, renewal, down-gathering and beautiful scenery...
Mother's Day itself was beautiful, too...
On Mother's Day Sunday, JhonDuane's family had a Mother's Day barbeque. Before the meal we went out to the buffalo pasture, where we practiced 'deadly force!
My bullet hole was the second one down from the top (middle).
I thought that was pretty good for a beginner.
But- where you see the double holes, is where Jhon shot through his first hole-- on PURPOSE!
Pretty danged amazing, I'd say!
The horse herd looked pretty bored with the whole thing, though...
After that, it was definitely TIME TO EAT!
Of course, besides the Moms, there were babies, too...
...and kids...
...and Uncles, Dads, Grampas, Aunties, Grammas, Nephews, Nieces.
It was a wonderful South Dakota Mother's Day- full of love and sharing!
...My children...
weren't there, but- as always-
are in my heart.
My Mom with my grandchildren (Bryn and Carrie's sons)
 |
| Great-Grandmother Barb and Oliver |
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| Great Grandmother Barb and Elliott |
...and Elliott & me!
* Mother's Day Proclamation
Julia Ward Howe was one of the early calls to celebrate Mother's Day in the United States. Written in 1870, Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation was a pacifist reaction to the carnage of the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War. The Proclamation was tied to Howe's feminist belief that women had a responsibility to shape their societies at the political level.
In the years after the Mother's Day Proclamation, Ann Jarvis founded five Mothers' Day Work Clubs to improve sanitary and health conditions.
In 1907, two years after Ann Jarvis' death, her daughter Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother and began a campaign to make "Mother's Day" a recognized holiday in the US. Although she was successful in 1914, she was already disappointed with its commercialization by the 1920s.
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