Day one: Norway continues to dazzle and amuse.
This morning at breakfast, Helen (the farmer here) receives a call that some rogue cows have been spotted near the road. Are they hers? No. All have been recently milked and accounted for. But they could be the neighbor's. Calls are placed but no one admits ownership. Helen schemes a reconnaissance mission involving us biking to the alleged spot of the cow sighting, luring at least one with a bucket of pellets, reading its ear tag and therefore identifying their owner.
And so we put down our coffees and cycled an unplanned but beautiful few hilly kilometers and are soon intercepted by the official cow witness. He leads us to them (two heifers, two calves) and Helen is able to successfully seduce and charm into coming closer. I will stand by at a non-threatening distance with pencil and paper at the ready, awaiting the numbers to be shouted my way. Meanwhile, motorists will be concerned at a random young woman on the side of the road; confusion ensues. But the numbers are read and wouldn't you know, the cows belong to the first guy she'd called. Another call is placed and a plan is made for a trailer to be fetched in order to bring the gang home. Helen attempted and almost convinced the belled alpha-cow to follow her home, but one minute on asphalt and that gal was understandably having none of it.
Later Helen will be summoned to help again, but by the time she arrives, the cows have been chased off by less experienced and gentle coaxing. We are assuming they managed to eventually canoodle them back to where they belong, but we had enough to do on this sunny day such that we couldn't wait to find out. Rest assured, as these things go, we are likely to hear the result via the gossip mill by lunch tomorrow. We're assuming at least ten people lost a morning's worth of productivity thanks to these adventuresome ladies.
Ah, country life. How I've missed you!
