What could you do less of?
Oh, probably blog. So here are photos, mostly of autumn. And Penney.
What Could I Do Less Of?
Tag: dogs
The Hippie Takes a Day Off
What are your two favorite things to wear?
I say I’m a hippie, because when I saw the prompt for the day, two things popped into my head: blue jeans and t-shirts. I have had that as my uniform since the day I was allowed to wear pants to school, which I think was in 1971. It sure saved Mom money, so she didn’t argue with me. My clothing budget shrank a lot. And I bought my own shirts.
The t-shirts have only changed in that now there are more horses on them and before I had stylized drag racing cars. Peace symbols and flowers have stayed.
The jeans started out straight, became bell-bottoms, got high-waisted and low-waisted and repeated in various ways. Mostly I wore basic Levi’s.
Now, on to the day off. I felt so good after a very long night of sleep, that I decided to take it easy today. I spent a lot of time birding, including being startled by the blue heron twice. It’s been picking off fish in the dwindling overflow pond, and neither of us can see the other until we’re on top of each other.
The other encounter I had came when Carlton and I took a walk in the woods. Suddenly he froze. I think he was trying to point like a hunting dog. We’d come upon an opossum along the stream bed. he must have smelled it, since he doesn’t see well.
Carlton was a good boy and followed me so the animal could go on about its business. It was a good walk the rest of the way. I’m glad I didn’t bring the Mighty Huntress Goldie or we’d have had another bloodbath. Ugh.
Other than enjoying birds, I enjoyed the horses. This morning I caught them at playtime, which involved Drew and Dusty nuzzling then running down the pasture to the pens, rearing and pawing, then running back. Dusty still has it in him! (Pictures are blurry because I was far away.)
Mabel eventually got into the running, but not the rest of it. I’ve noticed that she’s now strong enough to chase off any horse who tries to nip her.
Eventually Apache thundered back and forth until they all gathered around the hay bale. It’s nice to watch them play, and I’m glad they have the space to do so.
Later I spent quality time with everyone, which is always so nice. Drew is a little pissy lately, since his head injury. But the other horses and Fiona were fine. I got all the burs off Mabel, even. I just have to wait until it’s her idea to have a petting session.
I had plenty of time to make dinner, and was so relaxed I didn’t even get upset when Dish Network didn’t have the channel where Sunday Night Football was. Lee just went over and set up the antenna he’d bought weeks ago for just such an eventuality. Boom. TV. It comes in great, actually.
And yes, I wore jeans and a t-shirt today.
Daily Bird
I’m featuring the orange-crowned warbler today, because I’d never heard one here before, just on one camping trip. I didn’t see it, but I can sure ID one by sound now. It sounded like one of those rhythm instruments you scrape across in Latin music, usually five sets of scrapy sounds.
They only drop by here while migrating, according to the map.
A bird I saw a lot today was the Savannah sparrow. It’s a basic brown sparrow, but it’s everywhere this time of year. It and the pipit make little peeps.
Holiday Traditions Are Few This Year
Do you or your family make any special dishes for the holidays?
If they are referring to the winter holidays, like the Solstice or Christmas, then there’s only been one constant since my children were little, and that’s to have cinnamon rolls for breakfast. We used to eat them while opening gifts.
For many, many reasons I’m not doing much for Christmas this year. It’s going to be a hard one for much of my family, and I’m not feeling very celebratory. I’m just going to go somewhere with Lee, if we can get someone to feed dogs and medicate Apache.
If not, I’ll stay home and eat cinnamon rolls then cook a meal for the same people I cooked Thanksgiving for. Maybe I’ll make pork loin and correct cranberry sauce. I think there will be small, handmade gifts for people.
You know, I think I just don’t want to do anything religious. I’m not happy with things being done in the name of religion these days, especially the ones stemming from Moses and his tribes. I’m disappointed in wars, book banning, misogyny, religious intolerance, and fundamentalism. All of it.
For the solstice, which at least predates Christmas, there will be candles and maybe a fire if the place we go has a fireplace. I’ll make decorations out of things from the woods and put intentions of peace into them.
It will be fine to skip materialism and shiny things for one year and concentrate on helping struggling loved ones however I can.
Daily Bird
We had some rain today, but it only rained hard briefly. It did quiet the birds down. The daily birds just have to be the European starlings.
As I went out to slog through the puddles to feed the horses, I heard sounds like tiny bells. It was a huge flock of starlings heading off to some field now that the sun was back out. It always amazes me how many there are.
I learned in a magazine that the flocks often contain the local grackles as well. Blackbirds like each other, I guess. I’m never going to love grackles, those resourceful parking lot scroungers with the incredibly annoying whistles, the great-tailed grackles. I’ll work on it.
What’s My Favorite Animal, You Ask?
What are your favorite animals?
Actually, no one asked this except the daily prompt writer, because everyone who knows me more than as a glancing acquaintance can tell you my favorite animal is the horse, followed closely by and endless parade of dogs.
I’ve loved horses since before I knew exactly what a horse was. My mother wasn’t clear on the concept either, and taught baby Suna that horses said “hee haw” of all things.
In fact, my most beloved toddler toy was, um, a stuffed giraffe, which I named Hee Haw, and insisted was a horse. I panicked when Mom washed it.
I really loved horses. There are photos of me in a tiny cowboy hat riding my spring-loaded rocking horse and a giant pillow with a plastic horse head modeled after Fury the TV horse. I can’t find a picture of that, but I did eventually have this 1964 book.
By the time I was past the toddler years I already had a collection of porcelain horses, given to me by my Swedish grandfather. He must have had a lot of faith in me not to break them. More have been broken by house cleaners than were broken by me.
I drew horses constantly as a kid. It gave me something to do when I was done with schoolwork. No photos of those sad things are available. I didn’t actually know many horses, so they were a little off, even though I stared at my Album of Horses book and repeatedly read Black Beauty. I must have been a tiresome child. I went through a lot of crayons and paper.
That tiresomeness hasn’t changed. I still make very annoying word choices (like over apologizing) due to my long-term self esteem issues, which embarrasses me, which makes my dedicated efforts to love myself just as I am even more challenging. huh.
Let’s talk about how I did my best to soothe my soul today.
Even though it was pretty nippy outside due to a biting wind, I went for a nice walk in the woods, since cattle weren’t in that pasture at the moment.
I found a few signs of fall color and enjoyed watching my “secret spring” behind the back pond. It’s not really a secret, but probably only Sara and I have really noticed it. Maybe Kathleen did when she was meditating in the woods. We’re all forest bathers!
There were even a few birds to watch. Now that most of the leaves are off the trees I can see the chickadees, titmice, sparrows, and vireos much better.
In addition to this egret who was checking out the shallow seasonal pools and lots of swirling vultures, Merlin heard a new bird, more than once, even: an evening grosbeak. I’d love to see it.
Anyway, all the dark trees, the bright green rye grass, and wintry blue skies made me relax a bit and got me ready for toting numerous 50-pound bags of horse and chicken feed later.
Ready for work tomorrow.
A Cool Peaceful Evening
What are you doing this evening?
What an odd question, but one I can answer without torturing myself or becoming angsty. Hooray!
First off, I’m spending my evening basking in the genuinely pleasant, damp weather. What? It rained! It was the first significant rain since June 16. And for once, we didn’t immediately flood. We just got about a quarter inch that can soak in. It’s going to rain for the next few days, so goodbye to the Heat Dome of Hades! The high today didn’t even hit 90°.
This evening I also got my hair cut, which was long overdue. It’s growing out a bit. My hair stylist is a real hoot, too. She ran to her salon from a cross country meet, cut my hair in a half hour, then ran back to JV football practice. That’s one busy mom.
She cut my hair dry and straightened it as she cut it. It was an interesting technique and magically made my growing out layers look perfect. I don’t get to see my hair straight very often, so I enjoyed this experience a lot. The back looks pretty, too.
The rest of the evening has been spent hanging out with Lee and the dogs. Lee has some virus, but cooked dinner to cheer himself up. After that, I knitted and hung out with Carlton. That’s so perfect.
Well, it’s perfect other than getting all his precious white hair all over my shirt and temperature blanket.
Lee has been lying on the couch all night feeling feverish. The dogs felt compelled to cool him off. At one point Penney was on one side licking his hand, while Harvey was on the other side, licking his leg through his pants. Goldie hasn’t left his side. Like the horses, dogs know when people feel bad.
And that’s my exciting evening. I was at an online conference all day, so knitting and blogging is about all I can handle. The rest of the week will be more fun. Why did they ask this on a Wednesday?
Is There an Ideal Week?
Describe your ideal week.
I thought about this all day long today, and I had plenty of time to think as I worked in the actual Dell Technologies offices today. The scenery didn’t distract me, even though I had a window view.
I’m sure there’s some Golden Perfect week that involves riding horses on the beach, bathing in a spring-fed pond, working on the Great Sunarian Novel, knitting in a hammock on a porch with bird feeders nearby, and eating nothing but oysters, fish, fresh veggies and ripe fruit…but that’s not realistic.
Realistically, I think I’ve got all the ingredients it takes to make for a perfect week, right here in scenic Milam County, Texas. Here are the components of my perfect week, which might not all occur in any one week:
- Meaningful work. I’m glad I have a job I like to bring in money and challenge me.
- Writing. I’ll have to write every day, line I do now.
- Reading. I read constantly when not knitting, writing, or horsing.
- Horses. Every day I want quality time with horses, to make up for the years I didn’t have any. I will keep riding and learning.
- Other pets. I have to be with the doggies and chickens to remind myself there are so many ways to live and love.
- Volunteer work. I like my Master Naturalist work and want to do it as much as I can squeeze in.
- Swimming. I never used to like it, but I enjoy it all year now.
- Meditation. As I wrote about earlier, it’s part of any ideal week.
- Travel. Not every week, but often, I want to go camping, or to a condo in a new place.
- Friends. I love that I have scheduled times to see friends in person and Zoom every week.
- Family. Time just talking and laughing with Lee hard to happen regularly. I’m hoping tune with the rest of the family will become regular soon.
- Hanging out in nature. It’s a must or I get all irritated and irritating. I need to feel like I’m a small part of the big picture.
Wow. I just kept going there. The good news is that I usually have most of these things every week, so my life is now ideal. Yay, I made it to where I hoped I’d be when I was younger!
Note: in any ideal week the temperature will NOT be over 100°F nor will there be a polar vortex. But, thanks, humanity, you’ve guaranteed extremes for the rest of my life. That’s not ideal, is it?
So Relaxed I Am, for Me
How do you relax?
For a person with anxiety, I’m relaxed much of the time. That’s because I’ve had decades of practice finding ways to relax both my body and my mind. Here’s what I do.
Meditation: my goodness have I meditated a lot in my lifetime, probably years if you add it all up. I started so long ago that it was called TM, or transcendental meditation. I read a lot of books on it, though I never took a class. It was really helpful during my teen years.
Eventually I learned yoga, too, and did a lot of meditation in my spiritual activities. That Starhawk lady had a lot of fun guided meditations that let me help others meditate. I really grew to treasure my time breathing and centering as it became part of my spiritual practice and as I learned more Buddhist teachings. There are so many ways to meditate that I never get bored.
Anyway, it’s relaxing, too.
Knitting: I’ve knitted to relax even longer than I’ve meditated. I learned that from my female relatives, who all seemed to pick up their knitting or crocheting when things got tense.
The repetition and tactile pleasure of handcrafts is soothing both physically and mentally. I especially enjoy it when it’s just complicated enough to keep negative thoughts at bay.
And when truly stressed, knitting can keep me from opening my mouth and making a fool out of myself. I still remember the sock I worked on the day I was told my services were no longer needed at the nonprofit organization. I sat in my office that day and knitted furiously. That sock (it was yellow and blue, as I recall) would not fit onto my foot. For once I didn’t knit too loosely!
I’m just full of stories, huh.
Reading: No doubt many of us read to relax. These days I find fiction fun but not relaxing. I get too involved. I much prefer nonfiction or magazines.
Geez, I love magazines. I love learning about things I’d never thought of before, and I can lose myself in the photography, from home interiors to nature to fast cars and of course to pretty horses.
Pets: all my pets relax me. Okay, sometimes they add to stress, but mostly being with warm, entertaining nonhumans is a great way to relax. Stroking a happy doggy has to add endorphins. I have watched the chickens pecking, clucking, and slurping their water for long stretches of time, too.
I have to admit I spend even more time just hanging around with Fiona and the horses. They are so friendly and trusting. We hang out a lot, with them napping and me stroking their necks. Ahhh.
What relaxes you?
Back at the Ranch: Amazing Animals
I made it home yesterday, but for some reason the travel completely wore me out. I guess travel is stressful, since my right eye wept all day, while the left eye had a tic. The plane travel was fine, other than the fact that the Charlotte airport was dirtier and dingier than I remembered. Of course, the flight from there to Austin was delayed, so I got to stay there and look at food on the floor and seats quite a while. By the time we boarded, I thought I’d fall asleep standing up.
Lee was late exactly the amount my plane was late, which meant for an easy pickup, and I did try to converse with him though I was feeling distinctly zombie-like. By the time I got home I was dizzy and nauseated. What the heck? I’m much better today, with no eye issues and only a bit of fuzzy-headedness. Maybe I have 9-11 PTSD or something (for those of you who don’t know, I was on a plane headed to O’Hare when the events occurred, leading to some traumatic times).
I came home to a lot of love, though. Goldie glued herself to me the second I got into bed and didn’t move for a couple of hours. Today she’s been constantly checking on me, and also trying to inform me that she can’t sit on “her” couch because someone put an immense television on it.
So I got up and moved the immense and very heavy television. It’s the old one from our house in Round Rock, and apparently giant televisions were much heavier then. Glodie is much happier now and I can type (she kept nosing the keyboard away!).
Of course all the dogs were glad to see me, as were the chickens. Some horses seemed more glad than others. Apache was ecstatic, and glued himself to me much like Goldie did. He looks good, other than two sores on his shoulder. The good news is his grass allergy issues are gone, thanks to the Zyrtec, and the rest of him looks wonderful.
Drew was more interested in the water trough I refilled than in me, but after he drank he came and rubbed his wet face on me. He looked really clean, and I wondered why. Here is why:
Apparently, while I was gone, he figured out that the front pond is swimmable. The edges aren’t as quicksand-esque as they were when the water was higher, so he’s taken to swimming around and having a blast. Kathleen said the first time she heard the splashing, she thought we had a gator. Nope, just a sea serpent/horse hybrid.
It doesn’t appear that anyone else has joined Droodles in the horse swimming pool, but I sure was happy to watch him cruising around and having a great time.
There’s really no grass, so I need to get more hay out to them this afternoon. The heat is still miserable, and it hasn’t rained. The high was “only” 99 on Tuesday, but it’s still hard on everyone here. I will be getting out early to work with horses starting in the morning.
It was nice to get back to my office to work, though my house looks like hoarders have moved in. The rest of the furniture from my old house got brought in while we were gone and we’re still working out where to put everything. Much of the stuff is in our newest shipping container, and I owe a HUGE debt of gratitude to the guys who moved everything out of our old church, up and down those stairs.
Yes, we no longer own a church, which I’m not too sad about, because now Cameron gets a new church. I’m told the minister is really nice, so I’m happy for them. It looks like it’s time for our real estate business to find a new investment.
Thanks for reading, and hi to all you new readers! I do have a book report to write, which I hope to get done tomorrow. It takes thought, and I’m too tired to think right now.
A Mighty Huntress Is Our Dog (and the reptile exhibit expands)
Hi there, readers. Sorry there was no blog yesterday, but I’ll be honest, I was not really feeling like writing about the happenings of the day. The Circle of Life is real, and it certainly becomes clear here at the Hermits’ Rest.
I don’t think Great Danes have a reputation for being hunting dogs, but I guess they are bred to protect their property. We’re thinking of renaming Goldie to Artemis, because she truly is a mighty huntress.
Yesterday I went out to survey my domain and feed the chickens, as I normally do, and I saw Goldie intently watching something that looked to me like a bunny. I watched it slowly “hopping” away from the fenced-in area.
But when I got closer, I saw it was not a rabbit, but an injured armadillo. I knew who’d injured it right away, our mighty dog-goddess of the hunt. Goldie could no longer get to her, so my hope was that she could make it to her hole and heal up.
But I forgot that we have an actual hunting dog on the property, Vlassic. Apparently, he also got to the poor thing and hurt it a lot more. He was seen chomping away on the armadillo (which I didn’t see, or I would have stopped it).
By the time I came out in the afternoon, the dillo had made it to the front pond, where she got away from Vlassic, but couldn’t swim anymore. For some reason, this made me incredibly sad, like when the sick coyote died.
I guess I’m just too soft hearted when it comes to animals. Also, since I had just gotten the news that my late friend Christi’s son had just been indicted for her murder and I was still reeling from my two recent friend deaths, I think I am a little more open to sadness than usual. I feel imbalanced, like the scales that are usually balanced between life and death are tipped heavily over to the death side.
I know it will pass. But it’s no fun right now. On the other hand, I did get a chance to examine an armadillo up close. It’s cool to see how many hairs they have. I thank the armadillo for the chance to see her. Don’t worry, I didn’t touch her, and she was disposed of properly.
So, our little zoo is still bringing me interesting surprises. This morning I found dozens of caterpillars on the sorrelvine behind the house. I recognized them as black swallowtails. With this many babies, we should have quite a display of butterflies when they emerge from their chrysalises.
But the biggest surprise was in the chicken house. When I went in this morning, I saw that my snake friend was still there from yesterday. I love the snake’s smiling face.
I came back later to see if I’d been left any eggs, and thought to myself, wow, that snake is really long, even for a rat snake (they get to be over six feet long).
Aha, I realized why it was so long. It had two heads. Yes, both my snake friends were actually hanging out in one of the nest boxes. There went my egg supply for the day (but they didn’t get Bertie Lee’s egg, which is always laid on the floor next to their exit door).
Our reptile exhibit certainly is exciting. However, I am extra glad we haven’t had any copperheads or rattlesnakes showing up. On the other side of the river, there are lots of copperheads. We should be seeing rattlesnakes now, but I have only seen one this year (and I briskly left the vicinity).
I wish it weren’t so incredibly hot, smoky, and unpleasant outside. But, we’ll get through it. I want to be able to make more use of that new outdoor furniture. But the pool is always there to help me, especially after horse work!
Living in a Zoo
Honestly, I often feel like I live in a zoo. There are just so many critters everywhere I look. This morning I went in to feed the chickens, and realized the rat snake exhibit had moved back in. The BIG one was in there today. I hope she liked her eggs.
When I went to the Red House to be sure the weekend renters left it in good shape, I picked up branches the bad storm on Saturday had deposited. As I was doing that, I realized I’d moved part of the amphibian exhibit. There was a tiny baby Gulf Coast Toad. Awww.
I was basking in that cuteness as I took a pane of glass that had fallen out of the garage window (and didn’t break) into the safety of the garage, which was apparently doubling as an insect exhibit. The star was the stuff of my personal nightmares. It was a huge black horsefly. I got bitten by one as a child and can still feel it.
These things are not only painful, but deadly.
It’s all-black coloring reminds me of a trendy modern black house. Yes, it’s striking, but is a pain when it gets hot outside.
Luckily the zoo today had some cuteness, and for me it was the free-range cottontails in the pasture exhibit. The ones near the horse pens are still friendly. I enjoyed watching this one exploring and hinting that it wouldn’t mind sharing Dusty and Fiona’s food.
Bunnies aren’t the only ones who like the horses’ food. The chickens have figured out that every afternoon I go into a room and pour delicious pellets into buckets. Fiona’s dish is the perfect size for a pecking hen. This makes horse feeding time even more zoo-like!
Back to my indoor menagerie for me. In the house we just have scorpions, moths, one cicada (a dog brought it in), and all the dogs. I’ll be glad when scorpions go back outside.
