Stuffy, but not very hot. Today milked the small goat (which is probably not in kid) for the first time. For a long time could get no milk at all, though the udder was large & obviously contained milk. Finally discovered that if instead of running my hand down the teat in the ordinary way, I took hold of the whole quarter & squeezed as if squeezing out¹ a sponge, the milk came quite easily. Apparently a different configuration of udder. Wretched yield, about 1/2 pint from two goats combined. But they are eating well & should improve soon.
Ripe pepper falling from the trees. No eggs.
¹ ‘out’ is difficult to distinguish from ‘at’. Peter Davison
Orwell Diaries 1938-1942 
A communique´ each day from an ‘old friend’. This is wonderful!
No eggs falling from the trees, but milk falling from the udder and pepper falling from the trees, ripe but not in kid. Apparently a different configuration of udder. A wonderland.
whats up with the udder/teat/milk obsession?
Maternal trauma? british empire as symbolic mother figure?
call Carl Menninger……
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar…or in this case: goat teat.
Probably ‘at’ rather than ‘out’ then as ‘out’ is continuous, whilst ‘at’ is punctuated.
Eric feels the heat,
Oppressed by goats’ wretched yield.
Ripe peppers falling
George~~
Why not don your shades, saunter to the nearest [grocery store of your choice] and get a whole, frosty-cold Gallon of that stuff (gak)? Less hassle.
And you shouldn’t demean yourself with all that squashing of the teats of such a puny, wretched goat, anyway, when you could use that Bow Drill.
Wonder if Eric has any photos of his place here–would love to see them.
George Orwell is so much closer to the earth than I realized. As a child, I milked our cows. I think his comments are more mechanical than physical, emotional or psychological–but there probably is some part of everything in the expression.
Orwell has an irresistible instinct of pulling in a reader. After reading this entry, I felt that Orwell had sat down and told me about his goat. His brilliant writing empowers him to share his emotions (in this case his curiosity) in such a simple manner, that you become intrigued. This entry of his encounter with milking the goat, conveys how such a spectacular man ticks. He dipicts his thoughts in such a methodical fashion yet injects a jolt of innovation making his writing and thoughts flow together. This is probably how Orwell stayed in touch with the world, instead of spiraling into madness.
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