Heddy Coo

Tonight was the first night of my night photography class, and I'm so happy I switched from the other class. We have a couple of field trips lined up, so I'm going to have to dig out my flashlights, gels, long underwear, and balaclava in the next week.

As for this beast? It has nothing to do with anything, really. Just that there's a farm a few towns over with these highland cattle, and despite driving by here once a week or so, I have never seen one close enough to the road to photograph. Until today. Whenever I see them I think of my first trip to Scotland. I was a young teacher, traveling with another female teacher for the summer. From Edinburgh, we took a little tour van to Stirling Castle, and along the way my friend saw some of these lovely beasts and said, "Look at the cows!" Our guide, Niall, corrected her and told her they're called "coos" in Scotland. Hairy coos. Which sounded, to our American ears, like "heddy coos." I still call them that to this day.

(I can't remember...do the Scottish cattle have horns like this? Maybe it's a heddy longhorn hybrid?)