Posts Tagged ‘serenity’
Serene Green
This time of year, every morning the landscape looks different than the day before. The increase in the number and size of leaves on branches and blades of grasses that happen in a day is astonishing. Our morning walk with Asher through the woods and around the pasture offers one marvel after another.
“Look at this!”
“I can’t see you through the trees anymore.”
The horses have quickly gotten over the excitement of being allowed on the grass now that we’ve reached the point of leaving gates open all the time. They get to come and go as they please so there is no anxiety about confinement.
They are wonderfully calm in the morning and impressively patient about waiting for the delivery of their feed. I will soon be able to refer to “grain” in their buckets as we are gradually transitioning from manufactured pellets to a mixture of actual grains. This was a business decision by This Old Horse but it seems like an improvement to me, changing to a less processed food.
The chestnuts, Mia and Light, took a break from grazing to have a little nap in the lush grass. That incredible serenity is precious, especially since the horses are also experiencing seasonal hormones that have them coping with some unfulfilled urges that sometimes stir things up in the herd.
Yesterday afternoon, Light was like a little puppy trying to get Mia to snuggle necks but Mia wasn’t interested and moved away carefully to avoid causing a ruckus. Mix actually greeted Light nose-to-nose without being aggressive about it. That almost never happens.
Maybe Mix is showing some empathy toward Light.
That kind of behavior contributes significantly to the serene scenes we’ve been enjoying between rain showers. I’m all for more of that.
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Winter Serenity
Location, location, location. While up to two feet of snow was falling in places on the east US coast over the weekend, we were enjoying two rather idyllic winter days. When I stepped outside with Delilah yesterday morning as dawn was starting to ramp up the daylight, the calm outdoor air offered a definitive aroma of winter that triggered treasured memories of years spent in the woods up north.
When the temperature isn’t so extremely cold that it feels like we are being bitten by it, walking through the woods on a winter morning is one of my favorite pleasures.
We took the blankets off the horses to let them have a break from that constant contact on their hides. They’ve done incredibly well wearing them for over a week with almost no problems. One of them ripped a bite out of Mia’s blanket and Mix unbuckled a strap under her belly leaving half the blanket sliding off to the side Saturday, but those were the only issues that occurred this session.
It would be just fine with everybody, I’m sure, if blankets wouldn’t be needed for the rest of the year.
Our snow is getting to be old snow and is filled with a clear chronicle of animal activity since the last significant accumulation. It’s great being able to see everywhere the horses have been in the two fields we almost always have open for them. They are still finding grasses to munch on underneath the snow out there.
Yesterday afternoon, I let Delilah wander to her heart’s content in the hayfield, thinking the horses might come out and join us but they were positioned around the waterer in the paddocks when we arrived and showed no interest in moving from there.
Everything felt divinely serene.
There is hardly any snow left on the roof of our house, making it seem like spring might be just around the corner, even though history tells us that is just wishful thinking at the end of January.
Living in the moment, we’ll take what we’ve been given for these last few days, especially given the type of weather New England was experiencing during the same time period.
There are still plenty of chances left for us to need our plows and snow shovels before the season ends this year.
Over the last weekend, I fully appreciated the serenity of our late-January winter days outside, largely aided by the fact I didn’t need to clear two feet of freshly fallen flakes in our neck of the woods this time.
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Sunrise Serenity
It was about as peaceful as our place can be this morning as Delilah and I made the rounds. The serenity was only interrupted once when Delilah felt the need to respond to the distant barks from a dog far across the valley. The only other sounds humming along were the cooing of the barn pigeons and the munching of four horses happily chomping their feed.
Our labyrinth is glowing with the fall colors in the trees that surround it on three sides.
We are looking forward to a run of several warm and sunny fall days ahead.
I intend to soak up as much serenity as I am able. [big sigh]
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Relative Something 