I don’t always get to see these four sheep standing together. Suzy and Socks are two of my original three sheep (Tess was the third, she was Socks Mother and died some years ago)I got them when we still lived at Old Bedlam Farm ten years ago. Liam and Pumpkin are their lambs, now seven-year-old wethers.
Socks’ and Pumpkin’s wool isn’t long enough to shear. Their wool isn’t growing as quickly as it used to. But I’ll be shearing Suzy and Liam.
It’s kind of sweet seeing these four together.
Old Friends/Bookends
Song by Simon & Garfunkel, 1968
Old friends
Sat on their park bench like bookends
A newspaper blowin’ through the grass
Falls on the round toes
Of the high shoes
Of the old friends
Old friends
Winter companions, the old men
Lost in their overcoats, waiting for the sunset
The sounds of the city sifting through trees
Settle like dust
On the shoulders of the old friends
Can you imagine us years from today
Sharing a park bench quietly?
How terribly strange to be seventy
Old friends
Memory brushes the same years
Silently sharing the same fear
A time it was, and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence
A time of confidences
Long ago it must be
I have a photograph
Preserve your memories
They’re all that’s left you
It’s kind of amazing that he wrote that song when they were so young. I’ve heard it so many times, but never really paid attention to the words. It’s just right. Thanks.