The Rural Voice, 1983-10, Page 61Farms or fields green or ripe in summer,
lush green waving corn
all now gone, or rustling, brown, dry,
with heavy pendant cobs
waiting for the harvesting machine.
Fallow fields, green aftermath,
black furrows newly turned.
Black and white cows with nourishment for us,
red and white promising
savoury steaks and roasts.
How can we enjoy them with the butchery
in between?
Horse farms - yes, really,
fat, red Tamworth pigs
rooting deep for grubs,
ploughing the fields
without noise or fumes,
very few sheep. I wonder why.
Yellow goldenrod, purple wild asters,
grey milkweed with open, empty pods,
cattails in marshland, but no perching, singing
red -winged blackbirds.
Apple orchards, heavy with fruit,
cider - fresh from a small, home-made mill,
pure apple butter - no chemical additives,
King apples - my favourites just now,
Spys for winter - all home with me.
Population explosion?
House explosion too - everywhere.
A few sad, old, abandoned homes
but many modern and mobile.
A low old roughcast
embowered in fading trumpet vine.
Those enduring old stone houses
near Wingham,
that house with lavish gingerbread
at Whitechurch.
A small house on a carpet of gold
from sunshine through yellow leaves.
Huron County at last.
I can really breathe pure air.
The Mad Maitland in August
now a tame stream
with sleeping, ruminating cows
where floods were.
The Home farms
with casual but warm welcomes.
Bed and breakfast,
food for this wayfarer.
Traditional Communion Service
in a small country church.
Family visits - a happy foster child
in one home,
a little, new life in another.
Turkey dinners everywhere.
Alas, I can eat only one -
limited time and capacity,
but what aromas to start the gastric juices.
A few hours away from the daily grind
But so much for which to give thanks.
s..
The
Country
Mouse
West Wawanosh Mutual
Insurance Company
Dungannon, Ont. NOM IRO
529-7961
FARMS RESIDENTIAL AUTO
AGENTS:
Frank Forar
Donald MacKay
Donald R Sxnpson
Mason Robinson
Delmar Sproul
Lyons 8 Muthern
R R 2, Lucknow
R R 3, Ripley
R R 3. Goderich
341 Catherine SI Wmgham
R R 3. Auburn
46 West St Godench
FOR A QUOTATION ON YOUR FARM. HOME
COTTAGE OR AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE
CONTACT THE AGENT IN YOUR AREA.
DIRECTORS:
Eldon Bradle7
Gerald Kerr
Austin Martin
Kenneth 6 Maclean
Donald McKenzie
John Nixon
Lucknow
P 0 Box 62 Blyth
P 0 Box 304 Lucknow
R R 2. Paisley
163 Elgin Ave . West. Godench
R R 5 Brussels
CLAIMS SHOULD BE REPORTED
PROMPTLY TO THE DIRECTOR
IN YOUR AREA.
528-3824
395-5362
529-7567
3572478
529-7273
524-7878
528-2214
5239275
528 3601
36`i 7537
524 7602
8874417
LIQUID MANURE PUMPS
BUY DIRECT & SAVE
Exclusive Multi -Direction Agitator
Permits Vertical Mixing of Layers in Pit.
Also: Liquid Spreaders & Electric Pumps
(SINCE 1902)
R.R. 1, Sebringville
(Wartburg)
519-393-6284
THE RURAL VOICE, OCTOBER 1983 PG. 59