100th Post Medley - YeeHaw!!

Whoever would have thought that I had so much to say!? Okay, nobody answer that - that's just a rhetorical question. How exciting is that? Can you believe it, 100 posts!! And since this is a Monday, and I really have no topic of discussion here - big surprise - I've decided to post some pictures and be random. Come to think of it, that pretty much sums up most of my life. Random...kind of rolls off the tongue rather nicely, don't you think? I'm not now, nor have I ever been much of a planner. I'm more of a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kinda gal...go with the flow, or against the grain - whatever suits my fancy. Whimsical by nature. Yep, that's me. So, here are some pictures that I've taken lately from around my home. My life here on the internet for all the world to see...exciting huh?

Here's my friend Shannon riding my special boy, Harley. We rode 4 horses last night. Shannon rode her two horses, Frank and Emma; and I rode Ladde and Harley. Then, just for the heck of it, Shannon hopped aboard Harley and gave him a try. Harley was on his best behavior...such a gentleman.

And here's Frank...he's 3 years old. He's such a good boy, a real in-your-pocket guy. I think Shannon's put about 10 or so rides on him. He's so good. He's a lover boy too, just my kinda horse. He lets me give him kisses, and comes when I call him.

And here's Frank's other eye. Wonder what he was thinking about...

Sorry for the blurred picture, I must have fumbled or something. Frank really is a good horse, he has one of those natural little show horse head sets and he's sooo very relaxed, and pretty darn unflappable. It sure helps when your rider is calm and relaxed too.

That's Shannon's motorhome in the background there. It sure is fun having a friend around all the time. We've been riding and visiting and having a lot of fun. Shannon's even helping me put more schooling time in on our boys. We're going to start working on Harley's collection. Ladde's one of those short-backed, high-energy and beautifully animated movers. Collection usually comes very naturally for Ladde. Harley on the other hand, is a fairly long-backed horse, and he's slightly ewe-necked, so collection is more of a challenge because of the way he's built. But, when he is collected and soft, he's a dreamboat to ride. Harley's also more relaxed, and likes to take his time in life, so he likes to poke his little nose out and take everything in stride...which makes for a rather bumpy ride if his back gets all hollowed out. So...we have ourselves a project to work on in the evenings, along with Shannon's horses. Ladde's main problem is his weight - he's a little, how should I put it?...fluffy. Yep, that's it - Ladde's fluffy, and we're trying to reduce the amount of fluff he's carrying. If I'm honest here, Lad and I have the same problem in life. We both enjoy our food and therefore are very easy keepers. I don't want to talk about that though.

Look how much my tomato plants are growing! Our horses outdid themselves, and have created some mighty fine growing medium. Indeed!! All the tomatoes, and the berries are doing quite well...so are the weeds. There's another project I don't wish to discuss right now.

Here's Frank and Emma relaxing. Frank's on the left - see his little brown spot on his forehead? That's his reverse star. And, Emma's on the right. Emma's 4 years old. She's a very nice girl too. Frank and Emma - (those names crack me up, makes me think of an old married couple, instead of horses), are full brother and sister, and have been raised by Shannon.

This is Emma. I love this eye. She really is a beautiful girl. It's hard to take a bad picture when your subject's so beautiful to look at.

This is our roundpen. I just like the way the wood is aging and thought it looked pretty with the blue background. I even like the way the grasses are growing up on the edge. Very artsy fartsy, don't you think?

Once again, Frank and Emma - respectively.

Ladde loves Emma. Come to think of it...I don't think Ladde's ever met a female he hasn't fallen in love with. *sigh* My Laddster's quite the Don Juan...he is quite the lady's man, and loves to seduce the mares and treat them to his special little love noogies and nibbles. Emma won't admit it, especially in polite society, but I think she kinda likes the Ladmonster too. sshhh, don't tell anyone. It'll just be our little secret.

Our old barn cat, Albert, preening. Even old barn cats like to look nice.

The lovely Miss Emma...and she thought I wasn't watching.

One of the views from out in our pasture. I thought the sky was pretty.

I sure am thankful that things have calmed down the last couple of days, and even more thankful that we got our winter's hay loaded in the barn before the storm. It feels so good to have the barns full of hay, and now we can just maintain the yard, keep the garden plants weeded and hopefully enjoy the coming summer. I'm quite anxious to go on our first of the season horse camping trip. Sitting around a campfire with friends after spending a day on horseback in the mountains is one of my most favorite pastimes.

It's a rare opportunity to get a shot of our whole herd. Ladde's always watching. He sure is his momma's son. He's very much like Kadie, except for he's bigger and he's all boy.

I love this house. It's right next door to my most favorite house of all in the small town I travel through on the way to work everyday. It looks very Georgia plantationish. I can just imagine Scarlet O'Hara strolling out with one of her grand ballgowns on...

And this is my most favorite house of all. I love this house. I would love to have this house on our acreage. I've never seen the inside, but I can just imagine that it's perfect. But, as you can see it suffered some damage from the storm last week. This huge cedar tree was splintered by the wind and it came crashing down on "my" house. I was shocked! I do hope the family has good insurance.

One of the pictures that the newspaper published showed that one of the branches pierced through the bathroom wall and went right into the bathtub. Fortunately, no one was home at the time...only the family dog, and he was uninjured. Very lucky that no one was taking a bath at the time. Mercy!

Maybe I should stop planting trees all around my house.

On another note, my hubby is doing better after his major dental work last week. He's starting to look a little more like himself, and less like a chipmunk with food-stuffed cheeks. He's still eating his meals in mostly liquid form though, but he's made a lot of progress and before you know it, I'll have to resume cooking again.

That's it for now from Cingspots!

A Storm was Brewing

Here in the mild mannered pacific northwest, we rarely have storms. And when we do, they're generally not real exciting. Positively boring compared to most other places. You see, we're really blessed with a very temperate climate most of the time. We do get more than our share of rainfall, that's a given...but as far as real storms go - we're positively blase'. We don't have tornadoes, or hurricanes, or fires. Very rarely an earthquake will happen somewhere in the vicinity, but they're usually harmless. We're really quite lucky. So, in the future, if I complain too loudly about our rain or our mud...somebody please, just slap me. Okay?

You remember that I had said that the last several days had been very hot and quite humid. Unusually so, for our area, and that the weather forecasters had been predicting thunder and lightening for a couple of days. When we were loading our hay into the barns, the skies were particularly colorful and exotic looking; and the clouds were definitely ominous. At one point in time that evening, a strong wind came blowing through, and then it was gone. We thought we were in for a storm then, but nothing materialized.

Fast forward to Thursday around 4 o'clock in the afternoon. It had been a hot and humid day, and it was very quiet...nary a breeze. I'm sitting at my desk at the clinic when all of a sudden it looked rather dark. So, I went outside to have a look. The skies were very dark and it was very, very still. You know, kind of like the calm before the storm. All of a sudden, the wind picked up and hot dog, did it ever blow. We have a landscaping place behind us, with mountains of top soil, sand, barkdust and that sort of stuff. Well, rather quickly this stuff was flying through the air and the visibility dropped to about a hundred feet. Totally freaky!! Some of you are probably thinking, no biggie, but this just doesn't happen around here. Everybody in this little area of businesses was outside, rolling up car windows and such. All of a sudden a tree goes down, quickly followed by another and our large trash can goes sailing across the parking lot depositing its' contents from here to the next county. This was getting exciting!! The power lines are whipping in the winds and then the power goes out. Seems like it came out of nowhere, but apparently this storm had been brewing for a while.

So, after the major winds had subsided, the torrential rains and hail began. What a rain shower, it was pelting down with such force that all the storm drains were backing up and the parking lot was flooding. Ohhkay!! The power was still out, and the phones weren't working either. I went around the clinic unplugging some of the equipment and computers and such. It was now 5 o'clock, and I decided I may as well head for home. Nothing much else to do. I had managed to get ahold of my hubby who was at home because of his recent dental work, and he and my friend Shannon brought all the horses inside. Knowing that the horses were all as safe as we could make them eased my mind a lot.

The drive home was quite entertaining as well. There were electrical lines down everywhere, and bunches of debris all over the roads. The traffic lights were all out, and apparently just about everybody who was at work when the storm hit had decided to head for home, just like me. Traffic was crazy for our little area. There were two detours going home, a big fir tree had fallen across the highway in one spot and a big old oak had fallen in another location. On one of the detours one of my most favorite big, old, grand homes had taken a direct hit from a stately old oak tree that had been in their front yard. Sheesh!! So much devastation in such a short period of time. Gives me just a tiny little bit of insight into what so many other people deal with on a much more common basis. I wouldn't like it at all!!

So, I arrive home safely and without any real drama. Our modest little home is standing strong in the rain and looks just fine...and inviting. My hubby and my friend had gotten all the horses into the barns and they were just as fine as frog's hair...contentedly munching on some hay. Nothing much else to do but offer a quick prayer of thanks to the Almighty and go inside and watch the drama unfold on the news. If the power was on anyway. Which it was, I was told it had gone out for a while, but it was back on when I got home. It sure felt good to walk into our cozy little home and feel all safe and secure.

Sure hope things mellow out. The summer solstice is just around the corner. This year it falls on Father's Day, June 21st. I'm ready to kick back, soak up some sun and enjoy. Horse camping here we come!!

Sounds mighty fine to me.

Blessings from cingspots.