Home Overview far Approach Overview close 1 Overview close 2 Overview close 3 Driveway Flower Field 1 Flower Field 2 Flower Field 3 Sunning cork trees Signature cork tree Sea view NW Egrets View NW View N View E View ESE View SE View S View SW Animal Farm 1 Animal Farm 2 Animal Farm 3 Animal Farm 4 Spring 1 Spring 2 Eastern lane Jungle path Gnarled cork oak Pasture Pasture Flooded Waterhole Corgo in Fall Corgo in Flood New Pond 1 New Pond 2 New Pond 3 New Pond 4 Works 1 Works 2 Satellite Image Map Weather Star Visibility

A scene reminiscent of a Paulus Potter painting: cows owned by a friendly neighbour enjoy the good life on Samouqueira, grazing to their hearts' content on a foggy January day. The calves are ten days old. The cork tree, Quercus suber, that provides the cadre for this scene is age itself. A moment framed by timelessness. Etching The Herd by the Dutch painter Paulus Potter (1625-1654), the first to let animals, not man dominate the canvass. Although Potter was a naturalist who could draw and paint in a highly realistic manner, the trees we see here are unlike any in his native country, a touch more dramatic than your average Quercus robur. Perhaps in an effort to romanticise the pastoral landscape he drew trees of his own imagination - which happen to be strikingly similar to the cork oaks of Samouqueira. (For comparison see Sunning oak trees)