Relative Something

Friday, October 1,  continued…

Upon returning from the spring, we decide to pick up where Cyndie and Ian left off the day before with riding and exercising horses. We are interested in seeing if giving them the same routine two days in a row will produce recognizable improvements. Cyndie has brief success riding Doll without Ian leading the way, until Doll catches sight of Ian and me waiting and watching. After that, Doll won’t move, despite Cyndie’s attempts to encourage forward progress. When Ian steps up to lead the way, Doll responds. He even does some running to get her to pick up the pace. With Ian in the lead, they walk Doll out of the dressage area, up the road, past the house and into the pine trees.

Just after Cyndie finishes riding Doll, Carlos drives up to say goodbye. Cyndie fetches his mother’s plates that he had sent us home with after the dinner at his house last week. We are returning them with cookies Cyndie baked as a thank you. Ian brings out the scarf Cyndie knit for him and the book of my “Words on Images” that we gave him when we arrived, to show to Carlos. We are very happy to have the chance to give Carlos a special good-bye, and he wishes us well on our travels.

Next, Cyndie and Ian bring Frida out for a walk on the lead and report noticeable improvement in behavior from the day before. At this point, I wander off and find the sheets have dried in the sun, so I remake the bed and do some sweeping up in the writer’s cottage, while they continue working with Sebastian, and then Lucy.

With the horse activity complete, Cyndie prepares lunch from the week’s leftovers. While the meal is being prepared, Ian emerges from the house with a gift of a painting that has been hanging on his wall.  It is a ship crossing the ocean in a beautiful old wood frame that has metal corners with flowers embossed in them. He talks about how it just seemed something he wanted to give me and that it spoke to him of the things I have talked about, researching my ancestry whom had obviously crossed the sea and possibly in ships like the one depicted. He mentions that he recalled my comments in the past about not being that interested in flowers, yet now I would be taking flowers with me on the picture frame. It seems to me, a perfect gift. I am very moved by his choice. We have our last meal on the porch and enjoy a pleasant visit in the view of Mt. Graça.

With all this fun accomplished, it is time we begin the final process of cleaning the writer’s cottage, showering, and packing our bags. While we are nearing the end of these chores, there is a knock at our door and Ian appears, with Carlos again! He has returned with his niece, and this time, he is bearing send-off gifts. They present us with honey, produced in the region by his niece’s boyfriend’s family and a beautifully gift-wrapped present. Cyndie unwraps it to reveal a glass display case of Our Lady of Fatima that his sister made. These are very precious and generous gestures by this very good friend. It appears that Carlos is one for many ‘good-byes’.

While we finish packing and cleaning, Ian readies the horses, and dogs, and the house, for his absence. I put our bags and my guitar in his car, drop off the internet modem they generously shared with us, return the house key to the kitchen of the main house, and we are ready to leave the farm. Cyndie and I walk through the stables one last time and say our good-byes to the horses. In the car, Cyndie reports that she also said goodbye to the 99 camellias she re-potted.