Saturday, September 6, 2008

8 September 2008






I am getting further and further behind and if there is still anyone out there I will try to give a "brief" account of the happenings of the past two weeks, nearly 3 weeks.

I can't remember if I told you that I dropped my 80-200 2.8 canon lens (very expensive lens, enuff said!) For some reason that day I had put a clear filter on the front of the lens, which a lot of photographers do to protect the actual glass of the lens. If I hadn't had that on I would have smashed the actual lens as it landed on the rim of the lens and is a pretty heavy little baby. The filter smashed and bent the outside edge badly. We managed to get the filter off eventually and thank heavens the lens itself seems to be unaffected. I was mortified.

I have been busy getting my print orders up to date and getting stock submitted and preparing a portfolio and bio for a new website which I am going to be a part of. It is a lot of work but I have a good feeling that this will really be a good move for me and I am getting fantastic support and motivation from the people involved. More later on that when it is all official.

My health has been suffering (stress and depression) really badly as well and I got to the stage of self destruct just before last weekend, which was labor day weekend. I decided to take me and my van and an air matress and camera and computer and go trail riding for three days with friends. This is the first time that I have really ever taken time for myself in a long time and I enjoyed it tremendously. I rode every day, and actually rode one of the fillies that I bred. We had long rides, 5 to 6 hours at a time.

There are natural corrals in the forest made out of smaller trees that have fallen (they are very big into preserving the natural habitat in the forest, keeping to the trails and leaving any downed trees where they fall, if they are too high to step over they will just cut a section out of the tree which crosses the trail and leave it where it lays) so we had a few places in the forest where there are natural springs and shade etc. to rest the horses while we all just relax and chat.

Unfortunately the time off came with the price of having to catch up again when I got home. As it was a holiday weekend I couldnt take any of my own horses to the camp as it is a club and they limit the horses and rigs to members only at those times. It was packed to capacity needless to say. It was nice to see so many families out having a good time with their horses, which were in great condition (with one or two exceptions of course). We were camped right next to a large Amish group who had two trailers and 12 horses between them, and I was really impressed with their work ethic and how meticulous they were with their care of their animals and their camp. I was quite sad to leave on Monday evening. I took some pics while I was there but still havent edited many of them.

Since then it has been as hot as Hades, and on Tuesday morning I got a call from the lady who owns the pasture down the road where our 4 mares are. They have a 4 rail vinyl fence around the field but they are right on a very busy state road. We have had no rain for weeks and everything is turning brown and there is very little for them to eat in the pasture so they have been trying to get to the green grass on the other side of the fence. Of course they are big creatures and once they push hard enough the bar will bend enough to pop it out. They had two of the panels out already.

I couldnt take a chance of them doing it again, because once they have done it once they will certainly do it again and I dont want horses on a busy road to deal with so I had to arrange for poor Stan to haul his trailer over and help me load them up and bring them home. I was hoping to be able to leave them there until at least November, I had been subsidising with a bit of hay. We had 2 tenths of an inch of rain day before yesterday and that is all we got from the first hurricane, dont know if the others will push some rain up our way but we need it desperately.

We were going to try to take our blue roan mare BB to an open show on Sunday but I have never fitted a horse for Halter and just didnt get finished, we left everything til the last minute of course. I still have to finish trimming and braiding her mane, clipping the inside of one ear and a bit on her legs too and then give her a bath. We will definitely be taking her to the show next weekend though. She had shoes put on early Sunday morning so at least that is done.

I set up my bird feeder with the help of Larry and the young man who is helping us out with the chores that I just cant and dont want to do. I have hung all sorts of feeders on it as it has 5 hooks on it and they have started using it yesterday. I have a woodpecker, a golden Finch or two and some others I dont know what they are, some are losing their colored feathers in preparation for winter already. I had it set up as close to the bathroom window as I could but very high and out of the cat's reach but it gives me a perfect position to shoot from the bathroom. Today's photos are a few from this venture. I will post more daily even if I dont type anything I will try to post a picture at least.


((((Hugs)))))) to you all, if you are still coming to visit you need a medal LOL.


Lori

xx



4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Always good to see you back. And the photos are good.

I would let it go and not dwell on your heath issues. It might help you to forget for a while, at least.

ALso, I don't know if you are interested or not or if you have ever seen a Pileated Woodpecker, but I posted one on My Birds Blog this morning. It is our largest woodpecker and this is the first one I have seen here in 46 years.

Anonymous said...

I'm still here honey!! CG

Unknown said...

I know what it's like when life intrudes on your blogging!

Everyone needs some time away once in a while--I'm glad you got to have some fun.

{{HUGS}}

Gecko said...

Lovely bird photos as usual, I really like the bird feeder (the cloth one), I really want tone but I have a lot of bigger unwanted birds that I think will be there pesteringthe smaller ones, and taking their feed.

Good on you for getting away and taking some time to yourself, I think a lot of people are forgetting to do that these days!

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