I’ve been waiting for the Pet Parade! I’m playing along with my good friend Gayle (who I just love) and the talented ELK over at Shutter Sisters. It’s a family affair!

My doggie of choice is Sheba, our neighbor for the last 7 years. Seven years for a dog is a long time and Sheba was a young pup back then. Now she’s an old dame. Gray, slow, and calm.

She watches over the kids. A much younger and more energetic dog has moved into her house…poor her. But she’s taking it well.

What a good old dog…

Please enter a photo in my Hello Love – Family contest! You can win a free canvas for your photo. I would love to see all your submissions…

I don’t have the most observant dog.

Lets face it, if I quit my job and stayed home every day, I would drive you crazy.  Still resting I am.

While the boy has been occupied all summer with his schedule, the girl has been busy as well.

She declined to go to camp with the boy again this summer. Instead, she is spending her days at the farm, attending and working at horse camps.

She and her horsey friends attended this jumping camp last week. The next Sunday, they all had a major horse show.

Beth-girl looks more like me than the girl does I think. She reallly could be my daughter, skin color and all…

As a result of all this activity, the horses were all pooped out. They had to really be encouraged to work during the show. It was hot, they were tired from all that jumping the week before and they just didn’t wanna.

I know how they feel, minus the jumping part.

I had the girl walk Ella up to the food stand so she could eat.

Look Ella, grass…

Ella was walking really really slowly. She’s a very laid-back horse, and coupled with a very laid-back girl, the combination is like watching ice melt, or molasses in January. Whatever. All I know is that I was walking faster than Ella and I only have two legs.

It was hot, I know.

So the girl dismounts and leaves Ella in very capable hands. I can make her do anything I want her to.

She respects me.

It got to the point that the girl decided to take a drastic step – spurs. Along with the crop, she and Ella were Reserve Champions in the next event, after having came in dead last in the first one.

I would have used sugar myself.

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

AND…I’m play over at ishouldbefoldinglaundry today at Beth’s.

These are my three favorite places to play!

This is one of my favorite all time photos of the cat. He just looks so content and somewhat stately. I love that my wallpaper was in the photo so when I found out about Hello Canvas and realized what a wonderful product they had, I wanted to order more.

I needed a piece of art to go above my headboard. My bedroom is mostly black and white so I thought the cat would be a great addition. It would be a really personal touch.

So I put the cat to canvas and it’s beautiful – and huge. His head is about three feet across.

I measured, I did.

But for some reason, my sense of proportion was waaaay off.

As cute as he is, I don’t k now if I can wake up every morning thinking that he’s going to eat me.

I think that a canvas this big would be really great with different content, one that doesn’t make one feel like they are being stalked for food.

I think that a smaller canvas would have looked great. It’s just that it’s so big…

The husband saw my post last weekend and he called very excitedly and said, “I know the perfect place for this!” I cringed a little bit, hoping it wasn’t anywhere in the house, much less the bedroom.

But he does have the perfect place. And when it’s up in its place of honor, I’ll take a photo and show you.

So Hello Canvas, you do beautiful work. I’ll place another order soon. This one will be for a very, very, very small horse.

When I pick up the girl at the farm, I usually sit in my car and text her, “I’m here.”

Since she’s such a big girl now, I don’t stay at the farm with her anymore and thank goodness. I don’t have the time or the patience to stay there for hours…and hours…and hours…

But on this day, I was a little early so I wandered down to the main barn, right smack into Operation Separation. It seems that in order for Limerick to be ridden again, she has to be separated from her baby. It was the first time the girls tried it.

There was a lot of crying on the baby’s part. It literally sounded like a human baby saying, “Mama, mama don’t leave me!” It cuts to the heart of you.

Limerick found it very difficult to walk away. She kept turning around and refusing to go forward.

Finally the girls brought Limerick back to the stall. Kelly girl said they would try it again later that day. I hope it’s not as traumatic as this first time.

It reminded me of the first time we left the boy with a sitter other than his mama-san. Some friends of our insisted we go out to dinner and they would watch him. We were gone exactly one hour. Nothing against our friends and the boy was fine.

But I know how Limerick feels…

This is a sad story…so if you are feeling particularly tender today, don’t read anymore.

But for those of you tough folks with great intestinal fortitude…well, go ahead, live dangerously.

I was walking the dog as I am wont to do every morning that I’m semi-awake. Every morning I pass by Neighbor Vince’s house and on this particular morning he was outside with a wheelbarrow and shovel. He looked up as I walked by and he threw his shovel down and turned and walked about 20 paces away from me and started to sob.

These weren’t just tears, they were body racking sobs.

The dog started walking to him and I followed. I was greatly concerned and a little bit befuddled. After all I hadn’t had my tea yet (my compassion can be overwhelming at times.)

Neighbor Vince knelt down and hugged the dog and buried his head in hers. My thoughts immediately went to the worse case scenario. It’s the way I am.

“Is it Mikey ?” I ask. I immediately think of the kids…it’s my worse nightmare.

He chuckled/sobbed and said, “No it’s not Mikey.”

“Is it Teri?” I ask. I wasn’t leaving until I found out what it was, whether he wanted to tell me or not.

“You’re not a very good detective are you?” he says.

At which point, I looked at the ditch he was digging and I thought, “OMG, he’s going to bury a body.”

And right behind my fence too.

At which point, he put me out of my misery and said that Bubba, his Chesapeake Lab was in a bad way. And that he was going to bury him. I was alternately relieved and horrified…it’s wasn’t his kids or his wife, but it was his dog! There’s no love lost between Bubba and I but I have to say, I felt so badly for him.

I gave him a big hug and told him that I would get the husband to come out and help him dig. He said no.

I guess a man really has to do some things by himself.

The other night Neighbors Vince and Teri came by with this…their new puppy! She’s from the pound…and absolutely adorable! There’s no better way to heal than to pour your love into another being who needs it!

So now we – I mean they – have to name her…they want to give her a cute feminine German name. Does anyone know of one?

I think Greta…yeah, Greta. It’s a step up from Bubba I think.

Posted on Love Thursday. What a love story huh?

Have you ever seen someone who was losing their hair and swept all of it to one side in order to cover up the fact that they were losing their hair?

For some reason Ella mane reminds me of that.

I posted this photo yesterday on my facebook account and someone said they looked like they were having a conversation and it does, as creepy as that seems.

For you see, they were skinned, beheaded and fried very shortly afterward…then eaten for dinner. The husband took the boat out for the first time yesterday. That means one thing…there will be many more photos of fish on this blog this summer.

Be warned.

There was palpable excitement at the farm a couple of weeks ago. A brand new baby joined the herd of fatted lesson horses at the farm. The girls were a-buzz.

It appears that a month of speculation over whether or not Limerick was with foal came to a close when that same foal made her unceremonious entry into the world on a bed of hay. Plop.

Sorry. My own pregnancy was so long ago that I can joke about it now.

Limerick is one of the girl’s favorite horses and the girl had been complaining about how slow Limerick seemed. And how much weight she had gained. These are lesson horses so we didn’t think much about it. You should see how fat Merry Legs is now. But it was not until Limerick started seeping milk that everyone said, aha!

Considering the gestation period for a horse is 11 months, I’d say we were slow on the uptake.

Here is the girl on Limerick last summer. She didn’t show any signs of morning sickness at all:)

This is Camille-girl on Limerick just last month. I can’t imagine being 9 months pregnant and someone strapping a saddle on me and jumping me over fences.

She was the cutest thing. These photos were taken two hours after birth. I and about a dozen young girls watched as the foal took her first steps and made her way to her mother to eat. Awww…

Camille-girl was allowed in the stall so that they can start imprinting the foal. How cute is she?

After all the excitement abated a little, people started asking who the father was. Since Limerick only came to the farm last year, there is a possibility that she was pregnant when she showed up. There are two other possibilities, a horse called Dasher and…

Perhaps it was this stud, Rolo. Other than Joker, Rolo is my favorite horse at the farm because he’s so pretty. Shallow I know. There was discussion about whether or not Rolo was a stud or a gelding when Limerick came to the farm.

I think he was as stud.

Anyway, it was a great “birds n bees” lesson for the little girls. If we are going to talk about s-ex, it may as well be in the context of horse mating which they can then apply to people mating as they can deal with it. Or as their parents can deal with it whichever works.

Welcome to the world little one! As soon as we figure out who your daddy is, I’m sure you’ll get a name.

Actually, I wouldn’t know what the life of a real photographer is like. I only know what it is like to be me as I attempt a “photo shoot.”

I loved these beautiful tulips from my garden. I posted what I thought the best of the shots this morning. Then a curious someone tries to eat them.

Yum, tulips.

These beautiful daffodils were at the base of my neighbor’s mailbox.

Then someone wanted to know how they smelled. And they smelled good enough to relieve oneself on. I got the shot before that happened by the way.

Sniff…these smell good enough to…never mind.

The cat stayed in one place long enough for me to get a shot of some great sunflare.

Hey! What cha doing? What cha doing? Huh? Huh?

As my boss said to me the other day, “Le sigh.”