Heaven Is A Bass Pond

Skywatch Friday


Can you picture the Large Mouth Bass jumpin' and the Barn Swallow's diving?

The sun going down and the mist starting to roll in here on a little slice of heaven in New Wilmington, PA that I call home. Come on out and join me sometime for picture taking, Bass fishing or a glass of wine and a quiet chat....I would love to have you!

Tiznow

Tiznow at WinStar Farm

Last week I got to spend a couple of hours at WinStar Farm in Versailles KY (winners of this years Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes). I'll get some of the 'beautiful' pix posted a little later this week. But for now I want to post two of the more humorous photos.

This is the world famous Tiznow, Winner of 6.4 million, 2 time Breeder's Cup Classic Winner, Inductee to the Racing Hall of Fame and a Horse of the Year title. And.....resident GOOF BALL!

I'm pretty sure that these photos are never going to show up in a Stallion Catalogue. Tiznow commands a cover fee of $75,000. That's right.....Tiznow is NOT in a state of recession. Every mare this hunk of love meets means $75k is going in the checkbook at WinStar. Mare owners want to dream of the future "get" commanding big bucks in the sale ring or winning races...not doing improv in comedy clubs....or in the horse world.....pony clubs.

Tiznow at WinStar Farm

Many thanks to the wonderful Shirley McQuillan for arranging this fun tour of WinStar.

The Measurement of Time

Pre-School Graduation today for my Nephew!

10 Ways Which Time Has Been Measured This Week

10. My Nephew is 5 and is graduating from Pre-School. Huh wha...you were just a little baby like yesterday right. I attended your birth. You can't be 5 and having your first Graduation ceremony...it's just not possible.

9. I broke my ankle 7 weeks ago...I thought the pain was never going to go away. Last night I managed 20 minutes and .55 miles on the treadmill. I'm so thankful for fast healing bones. But why can't I heal up faster?

8. We replaced the barn roof over the weekend.....it was put on 30 years ago. This fact just smacked me in the face. I remember them building the barn...how is it 30 years old already?

7. The scale. You know that thing you weigh yourself on. Ummmm yeah. It's going in the wrong direction like every year. I'm going to have to start paying strict attention to that one.

6. Thursday lunches w/my Grandpa. This is a revelation to me. I remember when HE used to pick ME up for dates. Now it's the opposite. The circle of life.

5. When my Mum was my age.....I was Graduating from High School. Ummm hello! I still don't think that I'm mature enough to raise a child and my Mum did so successfully by my age. Thanks Mum!

4. Last night I was going through some pictures that I have taken over the last 4 years. And wow they have got progressively better. I can not wait to see how my photography is going to change in the upcoming year.

3. Yesterday on the 4 Wheeler .... I was cruising the nursery checking out trees. And I thought ... Wow this field is about cleared out. How is that possible. I remember very clearly planting it on a Saturday morning. I was late for week and still a bit tipsy from the night before. (lol) The realization hit me then....that was 14 Springs ago.

2. Polo starts next Friday night....it seems like forever since I've been to a match. But it's only been 8 months.

1. The last 12 months with my husband have been AMAZING! The way I gauge happiness has been forever changed and I'm just amazed and thankful daily for my fabulous life. Thanks honey...I love you more now than I ever have.

What about you? How have you measured time this week?

Grateful

Magnolia soulangiana

First the photo...this is a lovely old Magnolia at my fathers house. It really has no comparison, not that I've seen anyway. I can not remember a time that it wasn't this huge friend waiting in the side yard. It was my favorite hiding spot to read as a kid, a great climbing tree, and a solid friend to whisper secrets to when things weren't going good.

I'm very disappointed in the photo though...a bad in camera crop. And due to the ankle injury I neglected to back up and use that wide angle lens to get a shot of the whole tree. Oh well hopefully next year I can get a shot of the whole tree in all it's glory.

Second. The ankle injury has really made me take the time to really think about what I want out of life. In other words....having to slow down has been a good thing. A time to reflect on where I'm at. Where I want to be. And how to get there from here.

Bottom line...I want to spend more time doing the things that excite me and that I'm passionate about. I want more time to spend with people I love and the people that are positive and living life to the fullest.

Again...the question how to get there from here?

What excites you? What are you passionate about? And what are you doing to bring these things/people to the forefront of your life?

Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday

I am lucky to have a four wheel utility vehicle to be able to haul me around the farm like a tough wheelchair. Anyway. The Sky. My Wheels. Crutches. Lovely blooming Pyrus calleryana 'Cleveland Select' aka Cleveland Select Pears.

Waitin' on Work

Bobcat 863 with a 28 Caretree Spade and Grouser Tracks Waiting For Work.

The spring digging season is super short this year. For some trees the window to dig closed last week. For most of the rest we will be lucky to make it though the week.

Not that's it's overly important this year. The tree market is totally in the tank. We have friends in the nursery industry that are bull dozing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of trees. Unfortunately there is no way to stop production of trees. It takes years to grow them and the row spacing is set to sell them off in a certain number of years.

We have a few fields that will be seeing a chainsaw to every other tree in the row in order to save half of them. But for the most part our spacing is good. Hopefully the fall season will spell redemption.

Flyin' High

Westminster College Brittain Lake Hill ... A sledding tradition for the sleepy little town of New Wilmington PA

Broken Ankle Blues

Happy Spring Everyone!

I've been seriously short on free time over the last month and a half. My Mother-in-law (age 56) passed away suddenly about a month ago. And I'm laid up on the couch with a broken ankle as I am typing this.

I was stacking hay on Friday and stepped back to heave a bale up on the 5th row and my left foot went through a rat tunnel in the dirt floor. I of course went over backwards with the bale of hay. Fun times! So I have broken my fibula. I hate hay stacking with a passion now. And I'm stuck in the house with my leg elevated above my heart.

The bright side of this is that I can finally get to posting some of my winter photos and maybe learn Photoshop while I'm down. And definitely catch up on my blog reading. I've been reading along on my mobile but it's hard to post comments from it. See you at your blogs soon folks!

Snow Storm Cleanup

Saturday the 6th of February

So if your in the United States...you know that were getting absolutely hammered with snow here in Pennsylvania. I'm not complaining, at the farm we just deal. Keep the roofs clear buy standing on loader buckets and scrapping them off with long handled brooms. Our little 'sugar shack' is a snug home. The commute to the office is a short walk thanks to hubby plowing me a path to the barn and office.

It does make for tricky internet and phone connections. And 60,000 homes in Pittsburgh are still without electric (since this past saturday) according to today's news. Brrrrrr....it's got to be cold in those houses. Hopefully they will not have frozen pipes. Pennsylvania is in a state of emergency but all is well out here in New Wilmington.

Companionship

Bruce's horses Samson and Meg...long time companions.

Winter Poo

Life in Pennsylvania sure is interesting.

Today for your viewing pleasure I'm presenting two photos. The first is a weeds. That's right folks....weeds.

And the second, well I'll let you see for yourself....

Poo! Or more correctly some type of animal scat. But we're gonna call it poo.

Now I'm sure that you want to know why in the world I took the time to take these pictures (and I'm sure more than a couple of you are wanting to know why I got so close to poo).

I'm test driving a new lens. How exciting, right! And I wanted to see what it could do and shoot stuff with the old and the new and compare. Especially sharpness which I thought was a problem on my old lens (and it is).

Fine your thinking....so go ahead and test drive (shoot)....but why poo (and for that matter...weeds)?

Well (and I can't believe that I'm going to admit this)......I'm genuinely interested in the poo. I didn't set out to be. But once I saw it I was curious as to whether it was Red Fox or Coyote scat. And it was as good a place as any to experiment how close I can get with the lens.

And the weeds. I was working on Depth of Field...and how sharp I could get the individual blades of grass to be. And seperating moving grass in the forground from the moving grass in the background. And yowser can the 70-200 2.8 focus fast. Like scary fast. Like I have to get a grip....fast! Needless to say....I can't wait for polo season to start. It's a whole need world with this lens.

The weeds....really it's some sort of grass....I'd like to know if it's native and what kind it is. Now that I took the picture and have been looking at it....it would be nice to have a name for it.

Oh and the poo.....I have no idea what kind of animal left it. I'm going to submit it to the poo picture place run by Cornell and find out. It's a free service. They keep the photo (they are more than welcome to it) and we dear bloggers get to find out what critter is living on the back 50!

Snow Angel

Snow Angel's are fun to make.... apparently horses agree!

It's hard work though....

I've seen this look before.....on my husbands face! Looks like all the 'men' in my life and not so happy to have their pictures taken these days.

Saucy Redhead

The Saucy Redhead!

This is Ms. Meg aka Nut Meg. She is one of my winter charges. I have a friend who works in Florida in the winter and his two horses come and stay with us. They are a welcome addition to the herd. Her personality is fantastic. And she is always up for a display of attitude. If memory serves me she is in her early 20's.

Pullin' My Heart Strings

My entry for Sunday Stills.

Otis

Sitting in the morning sun

I'll be sitting when the evening comes....

Winter Chores

Charlotte geared up for a barn chores. I'm not the type to play 'dress up' with my dogs. But this little coat has made it through three JRT's and is still getting the job done on the coldest days of the year. It's certainly nice to have Charlotte in the barn for the 2 hour muck out on Saturday morning...this time of year the rodent population is on the rise and she is pretty quick on making sure that they are not going to make it out of winter alive!

Blue Skies in January

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Birthday to me! All in various states of belatedness.

I've been a very naughty blogger. And for this I apologize. But I'm ok....no really I'm better than ok.....things are really good here in PA. I have many pictures to process and get uploaded and certainly much to say.

But for now.....I've posted a picture of my lovely boy taken this past Saturday....when for the first time in about a month we actually had blue skies. Which for Western PA in mid-winter is a cause for celebration in itself.