friday archives, part 7

three weeks.

yes, it’s been three filled-to-the-gills weeks since the last friday archives post,

and this one has only a few weeks of photos edited–

from mid-february to mid-april of 2010.

some of them aren’t even good photos

but they hold meaning,

if only to me.

these begin on february 11,

when we went to the butterfly pavilion for addie’s fifth birthday.

the butterfly photos didn’t turn out,

but the grandkid photos did.

this is followed up by a couple of random tree shots

which exemplify the glory of  nature–

first the greening hope of spring

followed by what is visible prior to the green of spring:

one of the many photos i have of my feather collections.

about this time i began to seriously employ the use of camera apps for the iPhone…

on neighborhood walks down by the greenway trail,

at the denver botanic gardens when i went to a sculpture exhibit with friends,

(trees are sculptural…

plus the clouds are dizzyingly beautiful.)

walks around the lake north of town,

and simply gazing up through flowering tree branches close to home.

blossoms almost always catch my eye,

whether they are seed pods on poplar trees

or one of the orchids that i grow in my bathroom.

i am really hoping that the pace of life around here allows me a little more time

in the weeks ahead to catch up a bit and play with horses and photos.

i’m not counting too heavily on that, though.

there’s always excitement in the works here in wonderland.

stay tuned,

and have a great weekend!

when humans and their pets resemble one another…

then you know it’s meant to be.

rose is home

make a cup of tea for this post.

heck–  better make a pot.

today was one of those days that will forever be remembered.

it took a lot of planning and a lot of work to make this day happen.

the beautiful thing is that it was done with teamwork.

in fact, very little happens around here solo.

tackle a project, and help arrives.

need to set fenceposts?

plenty of help is available.

oh, painting the post with creosote?

got another brush?

and thus we readied the farm for rose’s arrival–

together.

it seemed to take forever for this day to finally come.

i’m pretty sure that the last two weeks took four weeks.

i felt a lot like a kid waiting for santa’s arrival.

and lo! and behold, *santa* finally called and said that the horse trailer

had just pulled off the interstate and would be arriving soon.

we had caoinlean and cormac in the turnout to greet her,

as we thought it would be fitting to begin

with a mother and child(ren) reunion.

rose whinnied from the trailer as it came down the driveway,

and they recognized who it was.

the others all answered, too.

rose, decked out in a brand new deep pink halter,

stepped off the trailer and looked around.

caoinlean reached over the gate to say hello.

that was sure a moment.

we led rose into the turnout and let her greet her boys.

after an initial flurry of excitement they settled right down.

we decided to leave them together while we took a break for lunch.

the day couldn’t have been more springlike and beautiful,

so we pulled the patio furniture off the deck and feasted out in the yard in the sunshine.

(and we have the sunburns to prove it!)

we had a toast to rose’s new home.

what a nice and fun surprise that was!

(thanks, c & j!!)

we had a lovely time, and i mean that.

it was relaxing, celebratory, convivial,

and it felt like one big, happy family!

i love that.

we went back out and introduced the rest of the herd to rose,

looked at the area for the arena,

checked the pasture ground and the ditches,

and just enjoyed being together.

when other commitments finally pulled our guests away,

sara and i felt that rose needed a little individual attention.

she got it.

she loved it.

then i remembered the ‘leap of faith’ halter that i had picked up at a flea market.

i ran back in the house to get it

and then we headed out for one of the photo shoots it’s reserved for in the back 4.

(seriously.  4, not 40.)

i’ll let the rest of the photos speak for themselves.

and at day’s end,

caoinlean and rose shared dinner together at the new feeder.

pure, sweet love.

how very lucky i am.

thanks for sharing in my joy.

i’m glad you were here.

********

p.s.

hi, charlie and jan.

they are being very nice to me here.

you don’t need to worry about a thing.

love, rose.

inordinately happy.

today the vet gave my girl rose a health exam,

so of course i went up to the irish rose farm to be a part of that process.

(my role being primarily that of face-petter, carrot-feeder,

and verbal encouragement coach.)

i was utterly fascinated by the entire process.

let me begin by saying that my gentle girl is an amazing patient.

she raised no objections to any of the tests run on her.

let me also say that dr. g. is amazingly gentle as well.

rose had a regular health check,

blood tests, an ultra-sound,

and then she had her teeth floated.

having never witnessed the last two,

i learned a lot watching the process.

little known fact:  all through high school my intent

was to go into veterinary medicine.

life intervened.

better known fact:  that probably wouldn’t have been a good schtick for me,

unless i could have specialized in a well-horsey practice or

one in which any illness or injury had a guaranteed positive outcome…

i digress,

but if you ever read this blog you should be used to that by now.

anyway, once rose had been deemed healthy and her teeth

nicely polished and smoothed,

i spent about half an hour brushing her while the anesthesia wore off.

i like to think we’re building up a very strong trust.

you should have seen the pile of hair that came off!

while still pretty fuzzy, she is beginning to get glossy.

rose needed a little more time before being allowed to finish off her breakfast,

so we went for a walk.

first we stopped by the car to grab the camera.

now, here’s an interesting question:

why, given the fact that i have taken hundreds of photos of gorgeous rose,

have i never realized that her eyes have two different colors of eyelashes????

well, in fairness,

this may be why…

notice anything?

yeah, me neither.

but seriously,

this is her left eye:

and this is her right eye:

trying to capture them together is a bit of a challenge,

given that her forelock is about the thickness of the average horse’s tail,

but this gives you an idea:

anyway, we walked around until it was perfectly safe for her to eat

and then i took her back to her feed tub.

she was pretty happy to see that her breakfast was still there for her.

until an interloper dropped by asking for a handout.

rose was very nice about it, though,

simply responding, “no, please“

to the mustached muzzle thrust between the fence rails.

everything about rose is simply magical.

spending the day with her on all of these preliminary activities made me inordinately happy.

she’s going to love living in wonderland.

i think she was wondering why i didn’t take her home today…

darn.

i should have just put the top down.

********

next week, dear rose.

come walk with me

morning walks are altogether lovely here in wonderland.

oops.

somebody was a little grumpy about being left behind.

i can hear the heartbeat of nature thrumming

through the swishing of grasses and the crunch of snow.

yes…  snow.

it was one degree here yesterday morning.

i assumed we had put the carhartt overalls away for the season.

never assume.

although the only one of our herd who requires a blanket during extreme cold

was certainly itching to get it off!

i can’t wait for rose to see all of this.

she’s going to like it here.

stay tuned…

life is good.

friday archives, part 6– on a saturday, no less.

i’ll be honest–

i’ve always had an unusual relationship with time.

i feel about time the way many people feel about money.

unlike money, however, there is no safekeeping of time.

(as long as we’re being honest, is there truly one for money??)

i digress.

nothing sets my mind at ease like knowing i have vast stretches of free time ahead of me.

what i’ve also come to realize is that nothing makes me less productive.

what a conundrum.

this retirement gig has thrown a new wrinkle into the mix–

half of the time i no longer know what day it is.

so this morning, as i sat by the kitchen window sipping my coffee

and watching the blizzard scream through the yard,

i had a sudden realization:

it is saturday.

yesterday was friday, and i failed to post friday archives.

(not a big deal, i understand.  but it provides me with a modicum of structure, you understand.)

which is testament to the fact that my mind has been otherwise occupied.

the impending arrival of rose to the farm

has come about rather suddenly.

on the one hand, i saw it coming.

on the other…

well, let’s just say that there is much to be accomplished

and a flurry of activity to attend to.

so yesterday, friday, i arranged the funds,

contacted the vet, mentally reconfigured the pen arrangement…

not once did photos even cross my mind.

which is just fine, considering the inclement weather today,

making it a perfect day to sit indoors at the computer.

therefore, here are the missing archive highlights

for the period of november, 2009 through january, 2010.

let us proceed.

sometimes, i just fall into a photograph.

what i mean is, when a photo evokes a mood i can literally be transported

to another time and place that may or may not be related to the actual photo content.

that’s the case with this one.

(keep in mind that when i’m editing these on my computer they are huge.)

i grew up along the central coast of california, where the fog rolls in off of the bay

and much of life is lived in a cloud.

foggy days in colorado are rare and inevitably carry a part of my heart right back home,

if only for a brief time.

these are the three very best things that i have ever accomplished in my entire life.

they will define my time on this earth.

this photo was taken having dinner at le central before heading to the

temple buell theater to see wicked.

a couple of shots of urban wildlife.

2009 was the first time i made it home for thanksgiving in 26 years.

november along the california coast is lovely.

we drove down highway 1 to big sur.

the beauty of this coastline never ceases to amaze me.

this little guy kept us company on the deck as we dined at nepenthe.

on the way back we stopped along a beach where the waves were picturesque.

the reflection of sun on sea gave brandt a nice silhouette.

it’s not a trip home without a stop at fisherman’s wharf.

these little critters are everywhere in the bay.

another one of those transporting pictures,

this one taken at the monarch habitat in pacific grove.

the light hit the moss just so.

back at home for christmas,

we had a traveling dinner celebration.

with three of us living in historic old longmont,

we each hosted a course of the holiday meal.

this is one of the reactions that you get when you ask a grandson to smile on command.

this is another, bordering on amusement at how ridiculous adults can sometimes be.

after christmas we spent a day in downtown denver,

stopping for libations and sweets at the brown palace hotel

where we looked up and up and up.

we entered into the new year with the adoption of (yet another) cat.

this is moufette (french for skunk), who is our little stinker.

it is also the time that i began to play with the hipstamatic app on the iPhone.

hipstamatic is a playground for the photographic mind.

hmm.  i wonder if perhaps the great variety of playgrounds that my mind likes to frequent

may just be a factor in my perplexing relationship with time…

********

nah.

probably not.

thanks for being here.

see you next week.

xoxo

roisin

pronounced “roe sheen”,

in gaelic her name means “ireland’s rose”, or “little rose”.

i met roisin on my first visit to the irish rose farm,

and it was love at first sight.

this is the first picture i took of her on that blustery february day of 2011.

one of the other photos became the blog banner.

i had no way of knowing how many hundreds (thousands) of photos of her i would come to take.

i still don’t.

every time i go up to the farm i come home with dozens more.

like today.

i took a brush up to the farm and i brushed rose.

we chatted about a multitude of things,

primarily how much i love her and how beautiful she is.

handful after handful of hair came off of her and was stuffed into my pocket as we chatted.

the conversation was not one-way.

rose has her own communication methods,

and i am coming to understand them.

i finally went to get my camera

as snow teased in the spring breeze.

she waited patiently.

she’s always a good sport about posing.

i plucked a bit of grass that had begun to grow around the edge of the shed,

which she graciously and eagerly accepted.

charlie suggested that i take her over to the grooming area

where there is a patch of green grass.

i’m not sure which of us was happier.

i’m pretty sure it doesn’t matter.

i.

love.

this.

horse.

and two weeks from today my girl rose is coming to live in my back yard.

that’s the power of love.

********

be well.

i am.

i’m positively giddy.

xx