It's a beautiful world (catch-up post #3)

I showed you our snowdrops early in January; the sarcococca bushes along the north side of our house followed suit shortly afterwards and are still perfuming the air.

A glorious sunrise:

These clouds arrested me on my way home from work one day:

My mare and a nearly full moon:

Handsome cat:

Solar light on snow:

I planted these pansies a week ago today, just in time for them to get covered by six inches of snow! They emerged relatively unscathed, although surely a little shocked.

Another arresting sight, this time a sunset on my way to agility class one evening:

And today I saw the first open daphne odora flowers:

That's it for now from . . .

First homecoming anniversary! (catch-up #2)

There's not much I like about Facebook, but having memories pop up in my feed can be helpful. Today Facebook reminded me that a year ago today, a wee Decker cutie-pupootie rode to her forever home in my lap:

All together now: Awwwww!

In comparison, here are a couple photos taken while traveling last weekend:

She's been a good traveler from day one. 😍

Here are some other January photos that haven't made it into a blogpost yet.

Here's to many more homecoming anniversaries!

Still more to come from . . .

Taking my lumps (catch-up post #1)

First, some GOOD lumps – the girls are laying again!

Last Thursday I was surprised by a pale little egg, laid by one of our blue Wyandottes. Did one of the four get wind of my thoughts that as the heaviest hens, they were most likely to grace a neighbor's stew pot?

Over the weekend our new neighbors did chores while we visited the college boy (watch for a catch-up post on that), and they collected three more eggs. This morning, there was a green egg to add to the basket. Woot; stays of execution for all!

That green egg has a story to tell. I picked it up on the way to the barn to do chores. Poppy was on a leash since her recall is unreliable; I secured her in the barn aisle and set the egg up high on the hay stack out of her reach since she once grabbed and ate one. I went to get Lance's medicine, and when I returned, Poppy's harness was hanging limp from the end of her retractable leash! My eyes followed the sound of her bell up on the hay stack and I spotted her ears; when I called, she reluctantly made her way back down – carrying that egg. Amazingly, she turned it over intact and completely undamaged, solidifying the "Retriever" entry on her resumé. 😁

Two weeks after impact, my bruise is fading but the underlying tissue is still quite tender and the goose-egg lump remains. If it were just cosmetic I could ignore it, but that lump doesn't like being jarred by jumping or running. Rick ultrasounded it again last night; he says it is both seroma and hematoma. If I were a horse, he would open it up and remove the clot and excess fluid so the skin could seal down and heal better, although he thinks the muscle itself is permanently damaged. I have a virtual appointment on Thursday to see what a human doctor would advise; I trust Rick's expertise but am not comfortable with him slicing into my leg. 😳

More to come from . . .

News, but no time (THAT'S not new)

So we've gone from a much-too-balmy January to this:

It started Sunday with much cooler temps and occasional snowflakes mixed in with the drizzle. My weather app has been predicting a 100% chance of snow today, but the big-city meteorologists didn't agree. What other profession winks at such failure? 🤷‍♀️

The progression of today's weather went from a few flakes (might as well turn the sheep out), to flurries (I'd better get Lance exercised!), to sticking (it'll be fun filming a black horse in the snow), to accumulation (whoa; SIX INCHES!?!). That should be it, but we'll see.

Mama Pea asked for a follow-up photo of my bruise, the result of my big bruiser of a mustang stepping on me a week ago today. That's hard to do, given its location, size and scope, but here you go!

I have lots more photos to share, but just got hit with an unexpected avalanche of end-of-year payroll tax work to do. Envy me (NOT)!

That's it for today from . . .