Sunday Stills - Powerlines and Landscapes

This week's Sunday Stills Challenge is powerlines and landscapes - not about the powerlines themselves but how obtrusive they can be in a photo.

One of the things that I really like about the area that we live in is the abundance of farm land. i grew up about 15 miles outside of New York City in a fairly congested area so I really appreciate open space. Unfortunately one things that we see often across the open space are power towers like these. The farmers basically work around them.

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Green Lane Bridge

This is the bridge over Green Lane Reservoir. It connects one set of trails to another. There is a secure walkway that runs the whole length of the bridge that is completely blocked from vehicle traffic and it has spots to fish from. The cool thing is that we can ride across the bridge to access trails on either side. It's a wonderful park to ride in!

Barn Kitty

This is one of the resident barn kitties. I think his name is Minkie and he is a friendly fellow. I tried to get a pic of the whole kitty but he came running when I squatted down to take his pic. He and his buddy OJ are excellent mousers.

Skywatch No. 46

Sunset over the horse barn.

If you look closely, you can see Montero in the lower right hand corner.

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Bull!

We came across this guy while we were out looking for garage sales. He just stood like a statue in the tall grass. Hard to tell if the gate was completely bent from the tree branch on the edge or if this guy decided the grass was greener on the other side of the fence at some point.

Wordless Wednesday - From the Greenhouse

My World Tuesday - Tollgate Eco-Park

We came across this really cool little park while out looking for garage sales this past weekend.

The waters are trout stocked and there were lots of other little critters.

The water is really clear and it spills from a couple of small waterfalls.

Craig and T catching crayfish

We let this cute little guy go back to scavenging

We are planning to visit this spot again, maybe for some fishing this time.

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New Corn

The corn is planted and is just starting to grow. These shoots are about 3 inches now but in another 6 weeks will be taller than me and this field won't look the same. Corn is one of the big crops in our area.

Sunday Stills - the color Yellow

Initially I thought I was going to really have to work at this week's Sunday Stills challenge but then I started to see the color yellow everywhere. Since I have been participating in the Sunday Stills challenges along with Skywatch and My World Tuesday, I find myself looking at ordinary things differently and noticing things that I have never noticed before.

A daisy growing in the horse pasture

A clump of Buttercups in the horse pasture
A school bus that I see every day (the barn owner is the driver)

T's smiley face bracelet, taken in the truck on the way home from work

T's afternoon Fruit Loop snack, taken in the truck on the way home from work
Construction vehicles in the building lot near work

The petals of an iris

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Donkey Neighbors

These 2 cuties live in the pasture next to Jet and Montero. Both are geriatric but in excellent health although few teeth between them. They eat well and are sweet as can be. They greet us regularly and will bray when one is out of sight of the other.

Taco Bell is a white jenny donkey who is about 10 hands high.

She is friendly but a bit more reserved than her buddy.

Danny Donkey is a brown gelding donkey who is about 8 hands high.

He always comes up for a scratch on his long ears and will practically crawl into your lap. We enjoy them immensely and make a point of saying hello to them each day.

Smiling

One of Bandit's favorite things in the whole wide world is playing with a ball. Pretty much any ball as long as he can chase it. It makes him very happy.

Skywatch No. 45

The weather here has been very erratic - warm and humid, in the 80s on day and chilly in the 50s the next. We've even had a frost advisory this week and today it's 80 degrees. The nights have been cool with some clouds. This is sunset earlier this week. You can see the outline of the sun through the clouds and the colors are really vivid.

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Sparrow

This cute little guy was hanging around the horse pasture. I almost didn't see him in the tree.

Wordless Wednesday - In Mid Air

My World Tuesday - Driving the Tractor

T doesn't miss many opportunities to drive the tractor. She'll even volunteer to scoop poop if she can use the tractor. She does a pretty good job with it, even with switching gears.

When Craig was adding a top electric wire to the fence to keep Montero off of it, he hitched a ride on the tractor that we were using to bring a large pallet into the barn for hay. T stomped on the gas and then stomped on the brake and almost launched her father. This is him basically saying, "Why I oughta..."

She did a good job transporting dad and pallet but I had to remind her to watch where she was going. The horses were smart enough to stay out of the way. Plus there was lots of grass to eat.

Heaven help us when she's ready for her driver's license...

To visit other bloggers and experience a piece of their world, check out My World Tuesday.

May 16th Gymkhana

Saturday's Buxmont Riding Club gymkhana was awesome!!! The weather held long enough for all 7 classes to be finished and for us to get the horses home and unloaded. Thank goodness the thunderstorms held off. We brought both Jet and Montero. Both horses did really great. I was the warmup rider and and Craig and I were hot walkers. T rode Jet in 7 classes and Montero in 4.

Bend & Jump on Jet

Barrels on Jet

Scramble on Jet

Keyhole on Montero

Show results:

On Jet:
Bend & Jump - 1st place with a time of 11.453

Barrels - 3rd place with a time of 22.044

Scramble - no time (knocked down the rail on the jump)

Keyhole - 1st place with a time of 11.814

Speed & Action - 2nd place with a time of 12.099

Poles - 2nd place with a time of 26.173

50 Yard Dash - 3rd place with a time of 8.521
Grand Champion for High Points

On Montero:
Barrels - 4th place with a time of 24.200

Keyhole - 3rd place with a time of 12.599

Poles - 4th place with a time of 33.633

50 Yard Dash - 4th place with a time of 9.048

Horse Show Buddies

For more gymkhana pics and show information, please visit my Shutterfly site.

Sunday Stills - Eyes

This week's Sunday Stills challenge is Eyes. "Someone once said eyes were the window to the soul, lets find out."

This one I pulled from the archive. Craig took this right after we got our new Fuji camera. He was playing with the super macro settings. I've used this for Wordless Wednesday before as I think it's an awesome shot of my daughter's eye and I think it's worth repeating.

This is Montero's eye. It's fun to try to get a good shot of the horse's eye as they don't usually stand still long enough to get a decent shot. I love the color of his eyelashes.

And last but not least, this is Jet's eye. The light hit him just right. I really like this one.

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Jet

I very rarely get good pics of Jet's face. He doesn't usually stand still long enough and if the angle is wrong his head looks goofy. He's actually pony-sized (14 hands) with a long almost-horse sized nose and a lower lip that tends to hang down when he's relaxed (affectionately referred to as his "flubby" lip).


His body bears the marks of his life before us. He is branded on his left hip with a symbol that is similar to other brands I have seen on Mexican Mustangs. He is over at the knee and will probably always be (his legs have straightened a bit since we have kept him barefoot and are careful about trimming his feet). His back has a line of white spots that run from his withers to his hip from ill fitting tack and probably an ill fitting pack saddle. His has notoriously high withers that will rub raw if the saddle doesn't fit him properly (we've found a good combination of pad and saddle that work for him).


And yet...to see him standing in the wind with his mane blowing, you get a glimpse of what he must have looked like on an open range. And to see him move is poetry in motion. He has such a fluid way of moving that you really appreciate the mechanics of the muscles and tendons that move his body. He is so well trained that you could ride him at a gallop and know that he will respond to your cues. He will run his heart out if you ask him to and will also carry a small child on his back and stop when he feels that child become unbalanced. When I watch T ride him and I have the chance to ride him myself, I thank my lucky stars that he came into our lives.


I have always wanted to get a shot of him standing with his mane and forelock blowing in the wind. This isn't quite the shot I had envisioned but it's close.

Skywatch No. 44

A beautiful bright and sunny May day. This was the first really nice weekend after 10 consecutive days of rain. Jet enjoyed the green grass along the fenceline.

Check out skies from around the world at Skywatch.

Lilac #2 & #3

When we were planting our garden the first couple of years after the house was built, we planted lots of flowers and perennials. Somehow we ended up with 3 lilac bushes - one to the left of my front door and the others to the right of my front door in front of our box bay window. Through luck, all three are different varieties and all bloom consecutively from left to right.

This is lilac #2 - a smaller variety than the early bloomer with tiny flowers that are heavily perfumed. It is in full bloom right now.


This is lilac #3 - another smaller variety with the smallest flowers of the three but I think it smells the strongest. It hasn't bloomed yet.


My whole house smells like lilacs for about a month and a half during early spring. I love it!!