nature

The world is so beautiful in the fall. I especially enjoy all the, ahem, creatures creeping all about. P. #2 is hard at work trying to decide "what to be" for Halloween: running from flying Cinderella to fairy to kitty to fairy kitty. Here she poses as an apple complete with worm.

i can ride

Here I am winning first place for Western Equitation at the Summit Rider's Horseman Association's fall show and playday. This was a childhood dream come true! (Though the horse of my dreams might have looked a tiny bit more enthusiastic.)


Here's Horsey Girl winning third place in her class for the same event. We sure had fun that day!


Even Princess #1 was inspired to enter. Here she is getting ready to win 4th place in Open Western Pleasure. (She found equal pleasure in being Fanny's stylist - check out those braids.)


Little P. got in on the act for the Costume Class. Ever the True Princess, here she is astride her noble unicorn. Another blue ribbon for the team!


Fanny Mae got first place in barrels (me), poles (Meri) and the up-and back (Meri again - by mere seconds!) She also helped Horsey Girl get first place in the egg and spoon race by being so smmmooooth....horses, girls, hamburger BBQ and twelve big ribbons....what's not to love?!

I love my girls!

And oh, more horses are coming to bless us...I can feel them now...

fair thee well

What does not kill you, makes you stronger. I am pushing on into normalcy now. Some things have been abandoned (gardening and cooking) in my quest to be the best Master's Degree student that I can. The program is challenging and rigorous and it is kicking my ass and I love it.

Things with dh are better. We are working together now towards a goal; breaking through rather than breaking up. I am however changed forever. I can never forgive him. There is a boulder in my heart that that a backhoe couldn't remove. It's heavy, but at least now I can eat and sleep and function.

A few weeks ago we went to the fair.


The big ones never fail to impress. We have one little green one at present, nothing like this!


We saw Phoebe, our goats' mom. Isn't she sweet? She wins lots of prizes every year.


More blue ribbons on the beautiful produce. I wish we had apples like these on our tree. Who plants just one apple tree?! Man the four apples we got this year must have been pollinated all the way from Corralitos town.


I LOVE this guy. He hangs out in the petting area, but always with a 4-H bodyguard to advise the kids, "Just pet his neck, just his neck." Hmmm, you can see why.


And the bottom half, equally amusing.


And of course, the yearly fish, which lasted pretty well this year. At this writing it just met it's demise...but it was a pretty and interesting centerpiece for a couple of weeks.

Other things that have fallen away? Besides blogging (obvious!) I have become kind of sick of all my regular reads. Could it be it's because they are just too, well, happy? Not real? Least of all not interesting. One of my old faves even has her husband writing now *gag* I guess my focus is shifting, old things falling away, new interests coming in. Here's my daily list:

*** Lunaea Weatherstone (be sure to visit her homepage, especially the oracle!)
*** Rainbow Dreams (don't give up on me, Mich! I'm reading with interest and will write when I can)
*** This great Waldorf Mom's blog
*** Astrology from my 'hood...Risa of Santa Cruz

That's all for now. Must go study...