That rainbow way

This morning, I saw a beautiful rainbow. It was so large I had to take photos in sections. The colors were magnificent!And then it started raining. Isn't that backwards? Isn't it supposed to rain first?

This morning, Annie and Yalla! were waiting for breakfast.

Yalla! is like a little kid, always watching...She neighs whenever I call to her.
I sure wish her neck would grow! She still has to bend her front legs to reach the ground. She is over 230 pounds now, at 2 - 1/2 months old, and loves to munch grain and hay, as well as nurse. Here's a butt shot just for fun. Her tail is getting quite bushy and multi-colored. She still has her dorsal stripe but it is blending more and more into her dark coat. The morning sun has distorted the colors in this photo. She's actually quite a bit darker but you can see that her tail is black, brown and white on the sides.

Annie still puts Scout and Nadia together in the middle when she and Yalla! are in the arena together with them. It rained yesterday and both Nadia and Scout took advantage of a good roll in the damp dirt.

If you look really fast at this photo, it looks like Scout has Nadia's head, or Nadia is a pinto Appaloosa. hahaa.

That rainbow way - song: TVC15, artist: David Bowie, album: Stationtostation

Leave a mark on me

The other day I hung a fly trap in my barn. Annie thought it was a horse eater. She would look at it, turn in a circle and look at it again. Yalla! had no idea what was so interesting but she obeyed her mother, staying by her side and going in circles too. It didn't take long for Annie to decide it wasn't going to hurt them. She decided to ignore it and went into her stall to eat with little Yalla! right behind her. Now she completely ignores the hanging bag. She is so much calmer than she used to be.

Today, while the horses were out in the field (arena) it rained on them. Then, I saw Yalla! roll for the first time ever! Unfortunately, I couldn't get any pictures but I did notice that the star on her forehead has changed somewhat. Now it looks like someone painted an "F". Look at the next photo. Don't you agree? I guess she's had it for a while but it just looks so prominent now. This is very cool since her name is going to be Kaheema Fantastyka or Fantastyk Kaheema. I haven't decided which way to write it yet.

Here's a head shot of Annie looking at the fly trap from the other day. Isn't she pretty?

Leave a mark on me - song: Beat of your drum, artist: Tin Machine, albm: Tin Machine

It's happening outside

My boys and I arrived late Friday night at my mom's house in northern new Mexico. We gave her a bouquet of flowers and some birthday presents. Of course, we sang Happy Birthday and watched her blow out the candles on her birthday cake. Then we headed up to my cabin for the night. We are welcome to stay with my mom but I love my little cabin at the top of the mountain.

When we unlocked the shutters on the windows in the morning we saw my lodger sleeping under the window boards. He takes a little while to wake up. Then he flys away for the time we are at the cabin but he comes back when we leave.
We had egg burritos with sausage, green peppers, cheese and salsa and freshly brewed coffee for breakfast. Then it was time for a little work.
A couple of years ago my husband cut an enormous pine tree down that was growing too near the cabin. This was taken last fall and it doesn't do it justice. The tree is much bigger than it looks. The base is easily 2 feet across. This is a view of THE TREE from inside my cabin. This is the upper part. You can see how close it is to the cabin. If it had fallen wrong it would have taken down the cabin.It still needs to be cut up for firewood. Ross is quite handy with a chainsaw so he went to work at it. However, our big chainsaw wasn't acting properly and the small one wasn't big enough to do the job so we only got the upper branches cut up on this trip. It was still a pretty good load to bring home. Here he is trying to figure out what to do with the blasted chainsaw!After the woodcutting, Ross wanted to have some fun, so he went fishing at one of the little ponds down at the bottom of the mountain. I joined him for a while but he wasn't having any luck at all.

I decided to go for a walk near my cabin. I only made it to the field next door but I took lots and lots of photos.

This vine was growing up through a pine tree. Does anyone know what kind of plant it is?

I love how the rocks are mossy and the trees grow all around them. It rained a few days earlier and this rock still had a puddle of water in it. This is a four foot high boulder that I climbed on.
Does anyone know what this cute little vine is called?
Look at all these young pine trees! They're all about 2-4 feet tall.

I love how all these branches are so crooked. Unfortunately, they look like dead trees so we'll need to take them down.
This pretty pine tree is growing up through the branches of the other trees.The ranchers were very creative in the old days, using anything they could for fencing.

There is a whole art on barbed wire. Every rancher twisted his a little bit differently.
I came across some scat, a lot of scat actually! This pile was huge!!! This is only a few hundred yards from my cabin. Seeing that, and then another pile near it, I decided it was time to return to my cabin.

Later in the day, my boys were driving away from my mom's house at the bottom of the hill and they saw a black bear run across the road in front of the truck. It was huge, they said, 300-400 pounds! Judging from the pile of scat I saw, I would agree.

Here's a picture of Trevor, kicking back and enjoying the cabin.

Soon it was time to go home again. Always, too soon!

FYI- I spoke with my mom yesterday and she saw the bear walking near her yard. She agreed that it was big! And the other day, she saw a hawk circling around near her Pug dog. He must have decided that Tobey is too big because he gave up and left. There are eagles in the area though so I guess she needs to keep an eye out for Tobey when he's outside now.

It's happening outside- song: Outside, artist: David Bowie, album: Outside

Sunday (Clouds 8-16-09)

This was sunrise on my doorstep a few months ago.

The sky is on fire, but thankfully, not the ground. Here are some alien spaceships. This was the moonrise a few nights ago.
Walking in the clouds on top of Wheeler Peak, the tallest mountain in New Mexico.

The sign points to Heaven.

For more Sunday Stills, please visit here.

Sunday - song: Sunday, artist: David Bowie, album: Heathen

Lodger

Tomorrow is my mother's 82nd birthday! My boys and I are going north to visit her as soon as Trevor gets out of school (his first day back). We will be staying at my cabin. I haven't been there since the 4th of July when Lisa and I spent the weekend to do some letterboxing. Since the day Rojo died right after we came back, I haven't spoken nary a word to her. I don't know why she's not talking to me, (she told me once that bloggers are strange, strangers?) but, whatever...

We'll go past the old mill,

up and down a couple of hills,over the river,and through the woods,

to Grandmother's house we go.

I have my Mom's cake and flowers ready to go. I'm going to finish this post and wrap her presents now. This time tomorrow, we'll be celebrating with my Mom and then heading up to my cabin for the night.

And if we're lucky, we'll get to see our summer lodger.

Lodger - album: Lodger, artist: David Bowie