My Shadow

BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,

And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.

He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;

And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow—

Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;

For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,

And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all.

He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,

And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.

He stays so close beside me, he's a coward you can see;

I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!

One morning, very early, before the sun was up,

I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;

But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,

Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

You know the sun has not been out for a while when your child laughs with excitement upon finding her shadow. We have been inside on many, many rainy days with many different illnesses. I hope to look back on this as the sickest winter we ever have had. I have been looking for the cold weather to come and cure what seems to just linger in our bodies. I am washing the bedding and leaving in outside over night and enjoying the good smell of bringing in crunchy bedding the morning. I have been missing all of the animals being inside with the children in the stormy rain. They have been there all the time, giving me meat (Noah slaughtered our chickens) and milk from Fifi which I have been pouring on the garden until all of our noses and ears are clear. The other day I got to weed and transplant a bit in the garden with Morgan sleeping on my back, that felt good, to have my fingers in the dirt again the first time since August. The raspberries got fixed up and are in nice straight lines (much to my pleasure). Yesterday I went around with the camera and got some photos in the lovely frost. We are slaughtering our own sheep (these are NOT for sale), I'm very excited and also a little sad to see our ram from this spring, Brother, slaughtered. He was a lovely sheep and had very good confirmation. He had had a good life and we will be respectful by not wasting, skin, meat or bones and will thank him for growing my family strong. We are excited for a new year of farming the theme for this year is not to get any bigger but to get better at what we do. We are really enjoying this learning process and hope for happy growing in 2013. We are telling our animal tales at the Q of U at the Heriot Bay in on January 23 so stop by and say Hi or come ask questions about what we are doing. See you there, I'll be the one with a baby at the bar:)