Dog days indeed

Whew!! Thought I'd better check in lest you all would think I'd been long lost or something. No such luck my pretties!! I'm doing just fine - thank you very much. It's August already. In fact, it's nearly the middle of August and it's been just over 3 weeks since my last post. Truly, the Dog days of summer. Busy, busy, busy. Too darned busy if you ask me! But seriously folks, it's freaking August already!! Can you believe that!? Blah blah blah, here we go again with the same old time thing...enough already!! (it's so true though!) Have I mentioned before that time passes a little too quickly for my liking? Oh okay, sorry...I won't mention it again. I'm trying; seriously, I am.

So, what exactly have I been doing that seems to be taking up all my free time lately? Darned if I can remember. My head's positively swimming with the daily grind though. I live such an exciting life. NOT!! We did attend a wedding though, and those are always a lot of fun. One of my best friend's daughter got married. The wedding was held in my friend's yard and it was truly beautiful. The bride was beautiful, the flowers were gorgeous, the food was delicious and the spirits were freely flowing, and everyone in attendance had an enjoyable time. Hubby and I even got to dance. First time in a long time...it was nice. Did I mention that it was FREAKING HOT though!!?? Seriously, everybody there was positively sweating bullets - I kid you not. I don't think I've sweated that much in my entire life...barring spending time in the sauna. Hot. Miserably so.

As you may or may not know, we here in the Pacific NW have been experiencing an unusually long, dry and exceedingly hotspell that's lasted about 2 weeks. We're just not accustomed to this kind of heat. We are heat weinies. For sure. Most of us don't own air conditioners, or swimming pools, and therefore have been wilting on the vine, so to speak...not to mention our vegetation and our animals. We are all quite spoiled and enjoy it that way. Triple digits cause our weathermen to hyperventilate with the excitement of it all. Extreme heat warning in effect. You get the picture.

So, yesterday afternoon when the skies turned grey and cloudy, we all waited with bated breath. And yes, it paid off. A refreshingly cool and most welcome rain began, and we all breathed a sigh of relief. I fell asleep last night listening to the luxuriously soft, soothing sound of rain falling on my roof...and a cool and moist breeze wafting through the open window. So peaceful; and blessedly cool and comforting. I didn't even have to water my flowers or garden plants last night. I love it.

One of my girlfriends and I spent a couple of days down at the beach a couple of weeks ago. We left home fairly early in the morning and stopped for breakfast on the way down. German styled fried potatoes, bacon, eggs and homemade molasses bread with plenty of coffee. Yum!! This particular restaurant is a tiny little place and is well-known for their wonderful homestyle cooking and especially, their pies. Oh my!! Those pies looked absolutely delicious, but we were way too stuffed to indulge further. My friend did take some pictures of all those lovely beauties though. There must have been 30 or more pies freshly baked just sitting there smelling up the place. That kind of thing ought to be illegal, don't you think?? Anyway, we travelled on to our destination. Leaving temps nearing the 90's it was invitingly cool at the beach. The skies were blue and temps were in the upper 60's with a light coastal breeze. Perfect!! We even made a stop at Depoe Bay and were astonished to see a pod of grey whales just offshore. How mesmerizing it is to watch those mammoth creatures swim and break through the surface and blow water and air from their blowholes!! It was amazing and we felt blessed to be witnessing such majestic creatures frolic in the ocean!! Truly breathtaking and awe-inspiring. Before long a crowd of spectators and a couple of boats had gathered to partake in this scenic adventure that just moments before had been just for us. We felt truly blessed.

We stayed in the "Ernest Hemingway" room at the Sylvia Beach Hotel on Nye Beach in Newport. It's an old hotel in the heart of a very quaint neighborhood where you can walk to any number of local destinations. Within a several block radius, there's a neighborhood grocery store, restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries, pubs and an array of unique little shops perfect for browsing and finding treasures. Our hotel was right on the ocean and we enjoyed leisure strolls on the wide, sandy beach and just lounging in the sand. We had a nice dinner in the local Irish Pub and then breakfasted in the hotel's dining room, where you never know what the chef will be planning. Besides the hot entree', they always serve a variety of baked goods, fresh fruits, juices and hot coffee. On the way home we stopped at a local farmer's market and came away with some fresh fruits and veggies to enjoy later. We had a wonderful time and I would love to do it again sometime with my good friend. One of the best things about summer is ample opportunities for making memories for cherishing later. I have a lot of pictures that I will hopefully be able to post sometime soon. Thanks Miss B, I had a fantastic time!!

My good friend Shannon is still staying in her motorhome at our house. We have enjoyed a bunch of great conversations, lots of horseback rides and quiet times on the deck. It has been very enjoyable for me to have such a good friend spending the summer with us. In years to come, I do believe that I will refer to this summer as "the year with Shannon". With someone at home, it has allowed my hubby and me to be more free to travel on the weekends without having the worry of caretakers for our horses. I will treasure this summer and all the wonderful memories we are storing away for later.

Well, I had intended for this to be a brief summary of what I've been up to over the last several weeks of my absence from blogging; but as usual, I've rambled on and on...always the chatterbox. Some things will never change.

There's still plenty of summer adventures to come...more horse camping, trail riding, peach canning season, jam making, barbecues, suntanning on the deck with my friend, two more weddings to attend...and our trip to Kailua, Hawaii. *sigh* I cannot wait!!!

Life is good...

Blessings from Cingspots!!

Daydreamin'

Wow - I still have a hard time believing that it's actually summertime. It seems like I live my whole life in anticipation of summer and all the wonderful, wistful memories that it conjures up for me. Sometimes I think I spend way too much time in my head. I'm always daydreaming of all the lovely things I want to do, you know, when the sun comes out and the days are long and lazy and carefree. The trouble is they never seem to be long enough, and definitely never carefree.

I would love to spend a summer in a remote little town, maybe somewhere near the ocean, in a quaint little cottage where there are no schedules, no deadlines and no people. Well, some people would be nice, but definitely no crowds. I'd definitely take my dog, and would love to have my horse, but otherwise just me and some good books, good music, chilled wine and endless hours of nothing but time. Time to rest and rejuvinate; body, mind and spirit. Time to explore the possibilities. I cannot remember a day when I've awakened and had nothing but time ahead of me. Time to do whatever comes to mind. To be able to wile a whole day away if that's how I felt. The pure, unadulterated luxury of having time to oneself must be an awesome blessing. And, not to experience the guilt that always accompanies idle time. My mom instilled the very subconscious thought that one must always be doing something. Otherwise, that time was somehow wasted and was of no use. I wholeheartedly disagree. But alas, the seed was planted a long time ago and if I do take time for myself and do nothing if that's what I choose; I always feel guilty. I feel lazy and useless. Sure wish I could get past that, but I don't begin to know how. It's ingrained in the very marrow of my being to accomplish, to hurry and to do. At any cost. I am a human doing, not a human being. And...I am so jealous of people who have what I conceive to be more personal time than what I have. Silly, I know...but true nonetheless.

My hubby and I took our two horses and went riding last weekend. We camped in the Coast Range mountains for 2 nights and rode both days. The horses were very good. No competitiveness and no spooking. They were quiet and relaxed. My horse felt solid and true beneath me. It felt good. I'm not nearly as fearless of a rider as I once was, but I still love time spent on my horse. We even got to watch a fireworks display up there in the mountains. Apparently, a group of people across the river from us were having a celebration. They brought all kinds of amazing fireworks and even had a water tanker on standby - just in case. Even the horses seemed to enjoy the fireworks display. Annie, not so much. She went into the horsetrailer and got up on our bed. You know, where it was a little safer - and quieter. The days were long and very, very hot, but even so, the time seemed to slip by ever so quickly.

My tomatoes are growing really well. In fact, they may be conspiring to take over the world. The berries are all doing equally well. My horses do create good gardening soil. Must give credit where credit is due. I won't get many berries this year, probably not a lot next summer either, but I'm told by year three - I should have bunches of the sweet, juicy lovelies. Yum!! Here's another summertime memory - my mom's homemade boysenberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream. Oh my!! Words just cannot describe how utterly delicious my mom's pies were!! Even her cobblers were really just extra large, deep dish pies. With all that homemade, flakey crust that she whipped up without using a single measuring device...we would have promised the world to get her to make one. They were simply to die for!! I make my piecrust just like my momma did, but they still don't taste nearly as good as hers did. Never will.

I miss those summer evenings where we used to just sit out on the porch sipping a cool drink and talking and laughing. Time spent with family and friends are good times. It just seems like everyone is so busy with their own lives now to get together and just spend time. I guess it's so very true what my grandma used to say..."good or bad, nothing stays the same". That's both a blessing and a curse. I guess it just means that we need to enjoy life no matter what. Things just are the way they are, and the key to being happy and content is just to live in the moment. Squeeze every little drop out of life that we can, make a conscious decision to be happy. I do believe that happiness is a decision. We can and need to make the most out of the life, the circumstances that we find ourselves in at any given moment. For, in the blink of an eye - everything can change.

I haven't talked to my sister for maybe a month now. I've tried to call her numerous times, but she never answers her phone. And, she rarely calls me. She does, however send me countless e-mail messages that are forwards. You know, those endless jokes and religious messages meant to inspire that good feeling deep inside. Not that I have anything against those. I enjoy them sometimes, and then sometimes they make me emotional. But, if she has the time to do that, why can't she ever just take a minute to call me and talk to me? Or, even for that matter, send me a little personal note via e-mail? It doesn't have to be a book. Could be just a one-liner saying hello or asking what's up? She also disagrees with me politically. I couldn't possibly care less what she thinks about politics. But, I don't appreciate getting spam e-mails about how rotten our president is. Or, how much damage he has done, or will do to our economy and our healthcare system and the price of underwear. Hell, if you believe all that they say in those stupid propaganda political things floating around out there in e-mail land - it's O'Bama's fault for the declining moral fiber of society...and he's a Nazi too. Good grief!! I've politely requested time after time after time that she please stop sending me those kinds of messages. I don't like them, and I think they do nothing but stir up hate and feelings of discontent. Basically, you become a part of the problem rather than part of the solution. So...yesterday I receive another onslaught of forwards from dear old sis, and one in particular sent me over the edge. I responded with a big old message of my own pointing out everything in particular that I didn't appreciate about "said" message and asked her for the umpteenth time to please just stop!!! Now, she's mad at me. Oh well, guess she won't be calling me anytime soon. *sigh*

I need a vacation.

Remember what Carly Simon said..."these are the good old days".

Hoping we can all make the most of 'em...

Cingspots

Old Cowgirl

Labels or titles of any sort never have impressed me. In my humble opinion, most people have a high enough opinion of themselves, and that gives me all the justification that I need not to be in awe of them. We're all just people. Flawed people, at that. No matter how wonderful you think you might be...you can bet there's somebody out there who can put you to shame. So, how refreshing when you meet someone who is humble. Someone who would rather understate (is that a word?) their value or their worth, instead of tooting their own horn.

My hero was my dad. He's gone now. Then I met Ray Hunt and he became my hero. He's gone now too. I really don't have any heros anymore, but I do have a favorite clinician. Brad Cameron, the mule trainer from Montana. I've ridden in two clinics with him and he's a great horseman. He would never say that about himself, but he is. He is mild-mannered and soft-spoken. He's patient and kind. And he's a phenomenol horseman who just happens to excel at teaching others in his quiet, unassuming way.

And, he's doing a clinic in my hometown this weekend - today through Sunday. This year they even have the advanced horsemanship class, along with working cows. How I wish I could go!!! I have a blast when I go to those riding clinics. They scare the heck out of me at times, they push me outside my comfort zone and I'm totally exhillerated all at the same time. Awesome!!! I took Ladde last year and Harley the year before. Alas, no extra dollars floating around for unbudgeted expenses. *sigh* What's a girl to do? Maybe next year.

So, instead my hubby and I are going out for Mexican food tonight, and tomorrow morning we're loading up the horses and heading to the Flying M. It's one of our favorite camping/riding places because there's miles and miles and miles of trails...all the way to the beach if you want to, and it takes us a mere 30 minutes or less to get there. Gotta like that!! So, tomorrow morning we'll head out and spend the night tomorrow, then come home Sunday afternoon. Sounds good to me.

It's a good way to celebrate Father's Day, and welcome in the first day of summer.

So, I'm gonna go play cowgirl. I'm gonna ride my pony all over those mountains and through the creeks and I'm gonna have fun. And as a tribute to cowgirls everywhere, the following is a little poem that I especially like.

It's what I'm gonna be when I grow up...

"Old Cowgirl"

I shall wear diamonds

And a wide-brimmed straw hat

With silver and leather on it

and I shall spend my social security

On white wine and carrots

And sit in the alley of my barn

And listen to my horses breathe.

I will sneak out

in the middle of a summers' night

And ride the chestnut mare

Across the moonstruck meadow.

If my old bones will allow.

When people come to call I will smile and nod

As I walk them past the gardens to the barn

And show, instead, the beauty growing there

In stalls fresh-lined with straw.

I will shovel and sweat and

Wear hay in my hair as if it were a jewel.

And I will be an embarrassment to all

Who look down on me.

They've not yet found the peace in being free

To love a horse as a friend,

A friend who waits at midnight hour

With nuzzle and nicker and patient eyes

For the kind of woman I will be,

When I am old.

Blessings everyone, cingspots