RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN ON MY HEAD....

The sunshine can't be here every day...who can complain about the fabulous weather we have been having???
Come on girls...let's run through those raindrops and get out to the barn...

Yup!  The rain sheets are back on.  Steady rain and wind with temperatures in the 50s.

Very grey....

I dropped Gucci off at Jenny's this afternoon while Phoebe and I did a Reading Dogs gig.

Hawaii was in the air!!!  

The first four photos were taken by Tina (you know, from Christina's World...DJ's Mom).









It was pouring when we left the building.  I picked up Gucci, did a couple of errands and back to the farm.
Both dogs love to be in the car.

At home, Phoebe is much more relaxed than Gucci.

She remains on alert at the kitchen window (where she is driven nuts by birds and chipmunks).

That's about it for today.  Tonight I will be out playing couples duplicate bridge.  I have never played with Pete (a good friend of the family) before, but we are looking forward to being substitutes.  Now, let's just hope we have good communication skills.  Right now, Gary is down at the Alumni House helping with First Friday.   Time to start chores...it still looks pretty wet.

SKYWATCH #38

We live on a horse farm.  This evening when I was out picking the pastures, this is what I saw.  I took the shots straight into the sun.... the effect seemed very silver and dramatic.

Visit other skies across the globe at: http://www.skyley.blogspot.com

BEAUTIFUL....

You guessed it!  Sunshine plus heat equals no sheets.  By 9:30 they were off.  I piled them all on my trusty sled and dragged them into the barn....but not before Abbe "nosey rosey" checked them out.

I put the hay in the inner pasture, but they wanted to go in the big pasture...so I knuckled under and opened the gate.  What the heck.

There is more grass there....

...and that's not a whole lot at this point.

The first blossom on the farm...Just a teenie thing, but it stood out amongst the dead leaves.

This morning I got an email from my friend Alicia, inviting me to lunch at the Red Bird Tea Shop.  Her Mom (The Diva at age 91) has been one of my art students, and is leaving for New Mexico on Monday to spend 6 months with another of her daughters. .... a little farewell gathering.

When I got home, I did some work outside and then grabbed Abbe.

We did some work in the indoor....and then I got carried away taking pictures.

So now, you are going to have a mini tour.  I have a "gallery" of sorts in there.  The horses don't seem to mind.

These are two of the photos.  They are aerial shots.  The one above is after the indoor was built

(as you can see, there was a drought and we had no grass left).  Below is how it looked before it was added.

This is the corner by the "people" door.  I have a chain covered with plastic piping at an angle to keep the horses away from all my stuff and the radio.  Looks like I need to do some spring cleaning to me.

Horses have come in through this door many times.

I love this very large pencil drawing done by one of my Studio in Art students.  It was taken from a photograph of my horse (Marieke) on the left, and her brother Hollander.  She is the Dam of Berlin.

Cotton lounge lines are nice, but this one is way too bulky.  It just looks nice for a picture.

I have been feeding the horses hay in this pasture, and today I went out there with the lawn tractor and mulched all the leftovers.  We are supposed to get rain tomorrow night and I will keep them off it while the grass attempts to grow.

There is a hill that goes up to the 2nd level of the barn.  While I was up there, some of the horses were in the outdoor ring.  I figured I would get some shots from above.

Abbe seems to be everywhere today, so she is the star.

Looks a little distorted from this perspective....oh well.

Enough!

APRIL FOOLS....

Hey!  What are you doing?

Soaking alfalfa cubes for evening chores!!!!  It's the last thing we have to do.

Not five minutes after I put the hay in the pasture, it started to rain.  Ran into the house for a shower and was off to chorus.  As usual, the ladies were line dancing.

Chorus was pretty intense today.  We got through a lot of new music.

When I got home, Phoebe and Gucci were doing their usual.  It was absolutely pouring outside and just when I was getting ready to go out and put the horses in, it stopped.

Gary stopped and picked up Ice today, as Jenny and the boys were coming up for dinner....homemade pizza.  When we finished, it was time for some outside activity.  Finally the sun came out.

Finn was very happy to push Coop on the swing in the back yard.

Then we all (with the three dogs) went for a walk down the lane.

As you can see, the garlic has really started to grow.  Tomorrow will be sunny and in the 60s and it wouldn't surprise me to see it go up an inch or two.

If the sky looked like this during the afternoon, I would not have given in to a nap.

These photographs look like paintings.  Taking pictures definately gets you to pay more attention to light.

Todays rain was the turning point....things have now started to grow.

We got back from our walk around 7:30, Grampa went to a meeting and the kids were already hungry.  Vanilla yougert with bananas and granola.  Sounds good to me.

Couch time....