Menoturals; Cattle Crew

Joining in with the LLB gang for Nature Friday, with the second in my miniseries on cattle breeds shown at Westmoreland.

You may recall in the Art Vibe series, there was a painting with an oversized bull depicted. That was boastful... but there is a breed from France that comes close to being exactly what that image displayed. Meet the Limousin (limb-ooh-sun)...

It is thought that this breed has some of the closest resemblance to the Aurochs that once roamed Europe and are depicted on many cave paintings. It is bred entirely for its meat production, and the great majority of the beef in the UK market (at least) is derived from Limousin stock. This is not what you would call an attractive breed, but it certainly fulfils the utility for which it is farmed.

Working with cattle always demands respect from the farmer, but this breed has been much engineered to bring in docility, which is essential for such a large beast. Handling from the calf stage on a regular basis, right through to breeding and showing, ensures building bonds of trust between handler and animal. 

Menoot; A Boomerang Post

There had been plans for visitors, but as we all know, the best laid of voles and women, or something like that! Mac1 (whose birthday was yesterday) called last Friday to say it would have to be postponed as she had landed hard on the pavement earlier in that first week, resulting in damage to her left arm and shoulder. Then Aitch, who'd been aiming to join us, took the nasty winter cold that is doing the rounds, as well as beginning to be leery of the deteriorating weather (it has been wild since the new year), so after a natter on Sunday, we decided best to err on the side of caution.

So let me today share with you what was posted five years ago on this date...

Menoizikul; Midweek Musicalisms

When seeking out the composers to share for the rest of this month, I found that January is one of the most populated months for birthdays. The list that I use doesn't include all possible names, but certainly all that are available to find for listening online. (For example, last week's offering via Joni was not listed on my source.) I found that, in the list of thirty-five names, fifteen of them fell in the first week, fifteen in the last week, and only five fell scattered across the middle. Out of the fifteen in the first week, six were born on the 6th, so quite a high percentage. In the last week, the cluster is around the 27th. Just some random stats there for you! 

Anyway, I made the decision that we would stick with the first week's lot, since last week started that particular ball rolling. 

Martin Agricola was a German composer, born on the 6th of January, 1486, in Świebodzin, Poland. At the time of his birth, that was termed as Silesia, and considered part of the Germanic bishopric of Magdeburg. He was self-taught and made significant contributions to understanding instrumentation and music theory. The style is Renaissance. I particularly liked this plain chant piece, which somehow suits the winter days.