Rainy-day pleasures

After flirting with snow on and off through the weekend,

someone turned up the thermostat (a tad) and turned on the faucet.

It poured all day yesterday and last night, and is till raining steadily today. Between the frozen surfaces, slick ice, and soaking, there has been no 'mental health mustang time' since last Friday, and I'm getting cagey. I thought Lance might be, too, so last night I took him out to that shallow lake of an arena to run around, but he said, quite clearly, "No, thanks." 😕 In fact, all the herbivores seem 'off.' The girls have gone off their hay and water for the last couple of days, and even Lance, chowhound extraordinaire, isn't cleaning up his hay like usual. At first I thought it was a particular bale they all disapproved of, but that's not it, either.

This morning I didn't spot the boys in the wooded lot and could only come to the conclusion that they had holed up in the Ram-ada Inn. You know it's a special kind of nasty when Shetland sheep seek shelter! I walked through the lot so I could shut the alleyway gate and confine them to quarters; I've been wanting to give the wooded lot a rest. Of course, then they wanted out:

To keep the wet, gray blanket from weighing too heavily on my mood, I turn to this between to-do tasks:

It's pure pleasure to play with!

On Sunday I surprised my Valentines with an early treat:

That's Jim Malcolm in house concert. I first heard of, and heard, Jim in a public radio segment around four years ago. I fell in love with his tenor voice, sweet guitar, and harmonica lilting Scottish folk tunes, and ordered his current CD, The Corncrake, which Brian and I have listened to in the car and enjoyed together. That got me on his mailing list, and I got occasional notices that he was traveling from Scotland to OREGON for concerts! The timing never worked out – until last Sunday. The venue was a private residence in Salem, and we sat on the front row (there were only three rows); I was close enough to touch him with my toe! Then followed almost three hours of utterly delightful music, humor, and history. Here's a meaningful tune he wrote and shared in the concert courtesy of YouTube:

That search led me to this; oh joy!

That's it for now from . . .