Found the cows

As a followup to my earlier description of my cow fixation, I have managed to find the picture (the picture, that is) that I took of the cows near my home. Like the leaf photo I posted earlier this week, I snapped this scene during one of my bike-photo rides. I figure these lovely animals were wondering why the heck a guy on a pink bike was parking along their fence and sticking his lens in their face. They just started at me as I snapped away. They were so cute!

Ironically, it was in the same general area as the leaf picture. These cows, like so many of my subjects, have a story.

They live on a farm that used to be on a sleepy regional highway just northwest of town. Then one day, some construction workers rolled into town and turned the fields across the street into a Wal-Mart. Before long, a bunch of other big box stores popped up in front of the Wal-Mart, and the neighbourhood was sleepy no more.

Our bovine friends watched as the road was expanded and traffic levels increased to urban levels. A year later, the construction crews returned - this time to the cows' side of the street, basically to the left of this photo - and put up a Sam's Club (yup, Wal-Mart wants BOTH sides of the street, it would seem). Traffic increased yet again as the area continued to be paved over - or is that under?

Fast-forward to today and little has changed. The cows are still there, living as they do mere metres away from zooming traffic. But the ominous zoning change sign has gone up in front of the farm.

The last time we were in the area, our kids waved excitedly at the cows, enthralled that they could experience a real farm so close to home. I paused and tried to record their reactions in the deepest recesses of my mind, for I feared moments like this would soon vanish from my family's reality. It is almost a foregone conclusion that pretty soon the farm will exist only in our dimming memories. This, apparently, is called progress.