Cow patting in Switzerland

After a long stop start winter, Spring has finally sprung in Switzerland. The fields are full of flowers and the cows and their bells are back where they belong, re-tuning the heavens and fertilizing my brain with crazy new ideas about their unique role on the planet. (Pity cows don’t have palms or fingerprints so that we could resolve this issue once and for all! )

As you can see, I went to visit some of my dear friends who’d just been released from winter confinement. They were happily munching dandelions, temporarily bell-free and all pungently in need of a good rain shower to wash away the crusts of dung and mud clinking to their underbellies.

Cows are curious sociable beings so naturally they all came crowding in for a pat on the nose and lick on my camera, causing me to step back into a cow pat of a rather different variety. What was that advice I gave the other day about never looking back? I’ve changed my mind!

Being with these cows made me think about how easy it is to be happy if we just focus on the dandelion right in front of our nose and savour its unique flavor instead of focusing on those way off in the distance.