A cow is little more than a four-legged, cud-chewing, farting and belching heat sink. They love the sunshine. A sure sign of a good day is if you see cattle on the top of a hill, eyes half closed, sprawled out and bellies rumbling as they ruminate their way through previously eaten grass and hay.
These two cows were taking the sun on a hill beside the Galway part of Lough Mask (near a townsland called America – there has to be a story behind that one). It was really hot on Saturday - almost 20 degrees in Mayo – and I was wearing just a teeshirt when I took this picture. But in the background are the Maamtrasna hills and those white patches are clumps of snow.It ain’t summer yet.