Cinco de May-ow and onward

Stella has made this a memorable week. On Sunday, when I was turning her and Lance out on pasture, I corrected Lance for trying to pull away from me to start eating and she jumped, somehow landing on my ankle from behind. I ended up on my butt just as Rick drove in from an errand, so he was able to come help me, taking the lead ropes that I was still hanging on to, turning the horses loose, helping me hobble to his truck for the short ride to the house, and bringing ice packs to put on it. Thankfully it was badly sprained, not broken, but it is the worst sprain I've had since childhood. There is still so much swelling on the outside that there are no contours visible from bone or tendon. I can walk on it just fine, as long as nothing bumps it and it doesn't roll to the outside (as it did on Wednesday when I stepped in a divot in the pasture; OUCH again). Good thing, because on Monday Stella made me move – and nearly gave me a panic attack! Pasture time was over for the day; I had already led Lance back to the barn and walked back up to catch her. Stella usually plays hard to get for a moment or two, then stands still and lets me approach her with the halter. Not Monday night; she galloped circles around me and then headed purposely toward the entrance of our property, tucking her legs and neatly clearing the fence beyond our gate. I yelled for Rick, who had just gotten home from work, to grab his gate opener – just as Stella galloped from stage left, past our gate and up the gravel road towards the winery and the paved road beyond! I wasn't sure what to do then, but decided to follow her on foot while Rick got the gate open. She stopped to graze along the lane, so I called our wonderful neighbor on our north and asked if she could run out her gate to hopefully haze Stella back towards home. It worked; we got her headed back towards our place and she galloped in and down the driveway to the barn  – whew. I really do need to update my dressage blog and title it, "How do you solve a problem like Stella?"

Spring has abruptly bowed to summer; good thing we had a good soaking (3" in our rain gauge from that period) to start the month! Even though the sheep have grazed the middle pasture intensively over the winter and spring, the invasive foxtail is still managing to head out. As the awns harden, I'll have to pull the ewes and lambs off, but am almost out of sheep hay. I'm hoping our  local hay supplier is getting first cutting put up now with second cutting following soon, but it won't be soon enough. I'm trying not to borrow trouble; "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." And there are daily joys, too. Among them:

1) Lambs, of course! I worked hard this week trying to get good shots of all of them, with varying success.

Don't tell Bitsy; her supplemental bottles are ending this weekend.

The biggest lamb, Bud, with the smallest one, Bernice, in front, and Bethany behind

Blossom & Bud visiting sire Sanson

Blossom has decided she likes my attentions 😍

2) Indoor blooms! My littlest orchid's blooms are still eliciting smiles, along with my anthurium and peace lily. The zygocactus a friend gave me when she moved a few years ago, which has produced ONE bloom to date, is now covered with buds. My African violet has buds, too.

3) Dogs and cat. These companions never leave us alone, even when we might occasionally wish them to. 😉

4) Fiber crafts. Even though I haven't spent much time lately spinning and weaving, they are still very satisfying ways to keep my hands busy when I'm not working on something else.

That's it for now from . . .