daring beauty

I dare this Peony to bloom.

Oh to be an Iris!  They are not afraid of taking over and standing tall and

beautiful.  I remember I was given an Iris back in Swift Current.    I didn't get to planting that Iris for a while and it sat on our driveway for a week at least in a plastic bag.

 When I finally picked it up hoping I could still salvage it, the roots had grown.  It proudly thrived on our driveway .

We might learn something from this kind of strength!

We all must just continue to show up and continue on, take a rest, and get up
and show up just like these flowers do every year.  I love these strong beauties!

hello to slowing down

I am feeling lost in this space the last week

I am ridiculously working hard to slow down...

working hard to slow down?

why is that hard?

I must keep my body moving and eat healthy

always a walk, or gym session to participate 

activities and horse riding

the grocery store is a regular stomping ground

when eating fresh fruits and vegetables, especially

that darn green salad.

The garden will help with that

soon

but then I can't keep up to the lettuce and it goes awry

Living takes work

I have type 2 diabetes and it causes some problems

if not regularly tended to

I have lab work done every 3 months and a doctor

visit to check my stats!  

anticipating the passing blood work number 

This is not a poem

about living as a Gnome

so keeping this more interesting

is only participating

in the thinking brain

I would like more soft subtler intelligent

words to put here

I don't have that gift

 I write in my MPS (morning pages)

most mornings

A mystery or two to read

A new author to check out

searching for a great read always

It feels like I am in touch with the simpler pages

of my day

 fresh paint on our walls

only select few pictures are now hung back up

having space is important now

keep the clutter extinct

my left foot is painful

I went to the doctor

arthritis? stress fracture?

metatarsal inflammation?

I'm okay but it is difficult practicing keeping it

real

my life to stay authentic

watching nature

is a genuine feeling of

"real"

taking breaths out as if blowing candles out on

a cake

reminder

Brian's 65th birthday on Thursday!

I have foot up to rest it several times a day

taking Magnesium Glycinate at bedtime to

calm the system and support healthy muscle function

Now off to the hospital for blood work

Gym training session this afternoon

loving my body 

my spirit lives in

A room to breathe

not taking on other peoples negativity

A Robin

Fuel Station

Petunia!

 Irises are so fantastic when they bloom!

Rodents Beware Read If You Dare

Moles are so ugly.  I have not seen one face to face so I looked it up

on google images.

I was grossed out when I saw this image of a Mole

Brian is pretty good at trapping them and preventing an onslaught

of this dirt digging rodent in our horse pastures. Ugly right?

If the monitoring of Moles was not done our pasture would be full of

deep holes for the horses and us to trip in;  could be serious leg injury for

animals.

boring video on setting Mole Trap

facts about Moles

Since we moved here 5 years ago,  hubby has had to purchase traps

and learn about how to trap them.  

------------------------------------------------

onto another rodent.......

We have Voles scurrying under our

deck this spring.

This is our Vole trap

click here for facts about Voles

We have also seen Badger holes on our pasture walk recently.

This is what a Badger looks like.

This is a Badger pasture hole

Other than these rodents, besides a few gophers, (we have one striped gopher

that we keep as a pet.)

  He is very harmless and doesn't dig big destructive holes.

If you read to the end of this post , good for you!

rain sprinkle and B & W

Rain came yesterday, for a short time, and I thank you for that.

I know more will come again at some point this spring.

 It was so much greener and fresh in our yard, I thought

changing photos as black and white would be fun.,  Flowers, not so much,.

They need to show their beautiful colours.

We can't imagine an acreage without a tractor and it's front end loader,

 and a snow blower, picking up bales,  harrowing the garden,

weed control with a sprayer.  Nope! Just can't imagine life out here without
these pieces of equipment. 

snow blower and harrower attachments

Sprayer

front end bucket

Attachments to tractor sit back of the barn shed as we do not have a Quonset or covered

area.  Our rain water system is attached to the barn eavestrough into a white tank

then spills into large black water tub.

Colour!

\

Pink Geranium

Those paddles we were not using.  We criss crossed them and stood them up here in our

back deck flower bed.

Our South view from the back deck

The garden is planted!

I prefer coloured photos but it was fun to change them.

buckskin mare slow warm up

A windy day
pushing through a bit of fussing from Grace;
wind is a distraction.

Hubby's videos below:

A video of myself is a great way to critique my cues to my horse.
I'm good with this ride this afternoon!

cool pix (literally) on Victoria Day

Excited to pick up just a few petunias

to toughen up until planting weather. 

 Strength, power, vulnerability, beauty as only nature can start popping out for show.

 We want warmth but

we still have nature in its harshness.
 Instant promises of colour to contrast the green of spring

working hard to come through for us.  

so many shades of green for all of our companions

Rocky is aging at 23 years old.   The sway back is very prominent now.
You can see the shades of green in this landscape,

I'm excited!

A Walk in My Park

It is not a walk in the park,

it's a walk in the pasture.

 Watch your step,

the path is not on even ground.

If the sweat of your day

is too much,

if your motor is revved too high,

lift the corners of your mouth,

the universe will respond.

Then, it is, a walk in the park

shaky video duck swim

It is exciting to see all the ducks or Mallards enjoying our pond
and I wanted to get a video before the pond water and ducks all
disappear.  We need more rain!

Watch video and see why I called it
"shaky" duck swim.





An affirmation after videoing these ducks on our pond
 today is:

I no longer worry, I do, I enjoy!
Keep swimming!

My new Nikon Cool Pix is teaching me patience and
accuracy in place of quick snapshots with my iphone and small digital cameras;
it's a hobby I take such joy in.  I wanted more zoom in power and I got it with
this camera.  It is a birthday gift from hubby!

A hobby can keep my mind sharper!

lazy Wednesday morning

Good Day!

Easter was pleasant for all I hope!

I have a new Nikon Cool Pix camera and i am playing around with photos

I can't wait for blooming and green to show more but for this post

it is all gold and brown with some blue sky.  

The horses are eating from a hay bale these days and kept in the small field until our pastures can grow faster.

Ben is having a lay-down.  I rode him for a bit (just slow walking around the arena yesterday)

my friend had cut up a Jicama with celery and carrots and it looks like a potato when peeled and cut. 

It's my new raw veggie favourite.  If you have not tried a Jicama you should!

If you haven't seen this cartoon, here is a " funny" for today.

photo splash memorable adventures

Photo splash to the past and the present,

just events to cherish, here they are....

A ride at our acreage - Swift Current,

with none other than BEN.  Only, if you ride this

horse, will you know how special he is to be on.

I always needed a stool mind you,  to get up onto his back, and hope

when I am out riding that we don't stop  and have to get off

and then get back on; out where there is no stool. I have looked for  many

  boulders and bumps when this happens so I can leg up  and get back on

(LOL) 

Motherwell Homestead in-between Yorkton

and Regina.

This was an experience and scary to see these men

get this thresher running.  How dangerous it was for

those farmers to operate this.  They did get it running too!

My cowboy boots (Ariats) I bought in Bozeman, MT
in 2007 got an overhaul and I bronzed them with bronze spray paint
  and painted
a bit of the design.  I will keep these forever, and hopefully someone will
throw them in my coffin (morbid but thats what I want)

this Christmas season I realized that
Tom is a genius with puzzles he did this 1000
piece puzzle in 5 days - it is glued together now and we will
frame it!  this was such a gift I had no idea it would
be put together that fast and it is a beautiful picture.
Thanks son!

We live 5 miles from a world renowned Strawberry
farm called Prairie Dome Strawberry Farm (look it up it is worth a trip)  and they take you for a ride on the big
open ended wagons to your area of picking.  Was enjoyable!

My dad gave me this letter that he found in one
of his photo albums as I wrote this to my
Grandma when I was 10 years old while at a summer camp.
(I think I was homesick a bit.  I was only away for 7 days)

My husband (Brian) made a new bed frame for our
master bedroom bed.  It was a new challenge and he
worked at it diligently.  I am staining it here in this picture.
I was impressed!

One of my most dearest moments; Tom and I and Brian went for
a ride through the back hills at our Swift Current acreage during the holidays season in (guessing maybe 2009)
Tom can ride but his interest is not really that developed but he has gone
on a few rides with us.  He rode Rocky and I must of been on Ben and Brian on
the colt at the time maybe Leroy.

Good Spirit Lake in April 2016
beautiful white sands and a lovely
clean lake for swimming and it has barely
changed since we used to go as a family
with my mom and dad.  We always treasure
this spot and attend it several times in the summer!

Oh my this was so thrilling to see a sea turtle while
we were walking around the rocks at the Big Island in Hawaii
Special moment for me.   They are so big!

Riding with the Top Line Trail Riding Club
at Sask. Landing and we were on the very highest ridge
I'm the second in line and Brian is the 2nd last rider.
One of our riders walked quite a ways up the other coulee
hill to get this photo.! (I was a bit nervous but I had Rocky and he
is the best trail riding horse, he is steady and sure)

Parkland Therapeutic Riding Club in Yorkton year end
party;  the clients/kids got to paint this white horse
I have never seen that done before and this horse was amazing!
He was tied on each side of his bridle in the middle of the
horse barn so the kids could paint away.

This was exciting ! Tom was getting his puppets spruced up
and perfected for his first Art Gallery Exhibit at the South West Open
He had 5 life size paper mâché video game characters on display at the local art gallery in the
exhibition grounds..... this was
July 2016.  His puppets are in this exhibit every year now.

 My folks came up to see his exhibit
and that was pretty special for me and Tom having my parents come see his success in the
art genre.!

This was a blast and having our acreage to have a fireworks
celebration was so exciting.  We bought the fireworks at Canadian
Tire and set them up down our lane.  What a Hoot!

Myan Riveiria in Mexico!
This was the most wonderful
ocean I have ever swam in.
Loved this swim, this ocean....I truly
felt I was in heaven for about 30 minutes.....
will never forget!  The universe was aligning up with
me at that time, I know it.  I said an amazing prayer to God.  It was January
last year and it can be a hard month.... (sigh)

Okay this was so cute, I helped Brian do the chores for our

neighbour back in November and she (our neighbour) had at this time 30 goats or so.  We watered and

gave them some feed and I took this video.  They are crazy busy and cute and

a bit noisy when excited.  Our neighbour loves goats and makes homemade soap bars using

goat milk.  This was a unique experience.

Horse back riding in Hawaii on the Big Island!
So loved this it was so beautiful and serene and different
landscape.

That's all for now folks!
Happy New Year!