Posts Tagged ‘images’
What The?
Yes, it’s time again to play everyone’s favorite Relative Something guessing game, “What?”. If you are new, the rules are simple: don’t cheat. All you need to do is study the image and conjure up what you think it could be. When you have your guess, and not before, you click on the image to have the full view revealed. Enjoy this diversion from everything more important that you should be doing, and guess your best!
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Cold Images
I am thrilled to present a photo that Cyndie sent me, taken with her iPhone yesterday morning on her way up to the house from the barn, after feeding the horses:
That sun dog hung around for a long time after sunrise for us. On her way down to the barn, despite an excruciating headache from a sinus infection, she called me and told me to get my camera and take pictures of the sunrise. I was skeptical that I would be able to get a workable shot looking directly at the sun with my little pocket camera, but I gave it a try. This is my version from about a half-hour earlier than hers:
Just the night before, I had been trying to capture how the setting sun was illuminating all the icy branches of the trees. None of my attempts were able to match what I could see with my eyes, but I did end up with a sunset shot that I like a lot.
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While reviewing the sun dog shots from the morning, I realized I had captured the sun setting on our horizon the very evening before. I think they make a nice pair.
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Snow Promised
The daytime temperatures here have been above freezing the last few days, but the precipitation that is moving across our region has fallen mostly as snow. The warm days are forecast to change on Thursday, when the temp is expected to drop into the single digits. It will stay in the single digits, even for the warmest point of the following days, through the entire weekend. Before that excitement arrives, we might get up to 7 inches of new snow.
With that in mind, I took some time to shovel the labyrinth last night in hopes of creating a more obvious path so it will be visible even if we get a half-foot of snow. I love how the pattern becomes more obvious with the snow. I knew I wouldn’t be able to finish before dark, so I stopped part way to take a picture.
It is inspiring me to try to make significant gains next summer getting the path well-defined, because it makes such a difference in the experience when you don’t need to think about the route along the way, and can, instead, focus your thoughts on the contemplative journey you have chosen. Having snow to very visibly define the pathway has showed me how valuable that is.
I’m thinking it won’t be feasible to keep shoveling down to the ground as the snowfalls get deeper and deeper through the winter. I would need to build walls of snow between each path, because there is nowhere to put the snow that is shoveled. I’m hoping to be able to just trod the path after each subsequent accumulation, now that I have established the base that defines the route.
It might be a snowshoe exercise, although I’m not sure it is wide enough for them to fit very well.
After I finished shoveling the whole thing, I took a picture, holding the camera up into the darkness. If you look close, you can see that the snowfall for the next phase of precipitation had already started.
I’m ready. Go ahead, let it snow!
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Perfect Image
This could very well be the last picture of the year from here with no snow on the ground. After the current bout of mixed snow and rain we are experiencing concludes, the temperatures are predicted to head into the deep freeze again, so maybe the ground-cover will hang around till the next measurable snow fall occurs.
Yesterday, I received this photo taken Sunday by Nick Shatek while Hays relations were visiting for a delayed Thanksgiving gathering. It captures the spirit of horse/human interaction that we want to see here, especially with kids. This is my niece Tricia’s daughter, Brooke, connecting with Cayenne in a most beautiful way.
We can report that the horse “popsicles” we made were a big hit. Cyndie served up two of them after the evening feeding on Sunday, and when she came back to the house the next morning after feeding them, she reported that they had completely gobbled up both, leaving no trace of any remains. Since nobody stayed around to see any of the action, we don’t have any idea who ate them, or how fast they did it. For that reason, we have decided to wait on serving the next two, until a time when we can hang around to observe the process.
I’m looking forward to the chance to get some photos of that event!
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Wonderful Visit
I’ve said it before, and I will say it (write it) again, our place is made whole by the presence of guests. We are extremely thankful for the families who traveled to be with us this past weekend, celebrating the U.S. Thanksgiving.
For some reason, the presence of visitors causes me to forget I even have a camera, so I captured very few images. Before anyone arrived, Cyndie was working in the kitchen to prepare foods for the feast, and Delilah felt the need to get right in the middle of the action to help out. Once there, she fell fast asleep.
The second image is from the labyrinth. I was a bit surprised to see how popular the labyrinth turned out to be with the young ones. It doesn’t beep or ding, doesn’t involve eating anything, it is outdoors, and it requires active participation. They loved it! I believe some preferred it over visiting with the horses. Several kids asked to be able to walk it one more time before going in, and later, some asked if they could return to the labyrinth to walk it again.
Both of those images are off my phone, because I didn’t have my camera handy either time. I didn’t capture any record of the wonderful interactions between kids and horses, nor the delightful behaviors of Delilah amidst the chaos and clamor of 20 people, young and old, eating and conversing loudly all around her.
It was a wonderful visit and we feel truly blessed to have been able to share our place with family over the holiday weekend.
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Round Two
We get a second shot at a family Thanksgiving today, with “Hays” relations making the trip east to visit and meet our horses for the first time. It really is a colossal treat for us to have guests visit Wintervale, despite the urge to have everything looking perfectly-tended and thus our needing to vacuum endlessly. Delilah doesn’t seem to see the point of that, and quickly crushes a bone to dusty bits on the rug, or shreds the next available stuffed toy to distribute clouds of white fluff to and fro.
She can be very assertive about making her point, like right now how she is repeatedly moving my right hand off the keyboard with her head to demand I scratch her, so I have to type one letter at a time with my left hand. At least I have a good excuse why the post is my usual Sunday lateness in getting published for you all.
I do need to get to the vacuuming, and would like to clean the paddocks before guests arrive, so I will make this short today. I’ll leave you with this fun portrait that Elysa captured of me with Dezirea during Thursday’s Thanksgiving visit by Cyndie’s family. I was inside the paddock to encourage the horses to come down the fence line for treats offered by our visitors. Dezi was checking my hand, looking for a treat that wasn’t there.
Oh, that reminds me… Last night, Cyndie and I cut up apples, celery, parsley, oranges, added shredded carrots, floated them in sugar-water with a little food coloring, and froze them to make “treats” for the horses. It was a recipe Cyndie discovered somewhere. I am looking forward to seeing if they show interest in the strange bucket-sized popsicles.
Happy December to you all!
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Happily Thankful
I dug in the archives to reclaim the image I used last year to express Thanksgiving greetings from our new home. Now edited, to show this years date, here is the start of year-2 at our new home… We are truly thankful.
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Clean Up
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“What do you mean I have to put away all my toys because company is coming?”
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Twas the day before Thanksgiving, and all through the house… Yeah, we’re cleanin.’ And cooking!
Cyndie read somewhere that you should give your dog a new toy every few days, or at least, rotate them out of service for a while as new ones are introduced. I know how this works. We raised kids. Delilah would just as likely play with a stick or a leaf and be fascinated for an hour. She would just as happily devour the cardboard backing a new chew toy had been mounted to, instead of the toy itself. Ice cubes are a current fascination. But it seems everyday I discover a new colorful device in our house that pet scientists of the world have devised to keep our dog intellectually challenged.
I’d like to meet the marketing genius who wrote that article Cyndie read, …and congratulate him.
“Don’t forget to clean up after the horses in the paddocks!”
Yes, dear. I should just let Delilah eat it all. With a dog’s sense of smell a gazillion times better than humans, you’d think manure would smell something awful to them. So, why the need to taste it at every encounter? The horses, deer, raccoons… She doesn’t discriminate.
I sure hope it won’t be too sunny tomorrow. I don’t think we’ll get around to washing windows before guests arrive.
If you are traveling today, be careful out there! We hope everyone in the States reading along will have a chance this holiday-extended-weekend to gather with others, sit down to a meal together, and bask in the valuable energy of being thankful. If you notice your hosts missed a spot when they were cleaning for guests, be sure to cut them some slack. Especially if they have been trying to live with a great big puppy and two frustrated house cats for the last two months.
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Relative Something 