Quiddity:

Most of you know that I like to take photographs. You may not know that I’m also quite the electronic gadget freak, too. Put to two together and I’m trouble! Hahaha One of my friends gave me a very generous birthday present last month - an Amazon gift card - so I was flipping through my wish list to see what odd things I’d thrown in there and came up with this.

Camera - check! Gadget - check! Add to cart!!!

I took it to the barn this morning to try out. Of course, Gracie had to be my first subject. Isn’t she cute! She was a little discouraged that I hadn’t brought treats, but posed nicely for me anyway. This little plastic camera actually has some fairly advanced setting options and even though the photos are small (business card size), they look pretty good. I am thinking of all kinds of fun things to do with this. Such a great gift!!!

The other silly thing is my last finished knitting project. It’s a hat! No, it’s a cowl! No, it’s a different hat!

I mean, really, how silly is that! Actually, though, it’s not a bad idea. This one is going into the pile for sale at the barn’s Holiday Bazaar. I love the concept, but I’m more of a slouchy hat person and this one is a little too form fitting. I’m sure someone will love it.

Here’s another silly thing - bat houses! Ok, they aren’t silly to the bats, but it is kind of funny to get fifteen people out at 8:30am on a Saturday morning to dig holes to drop 25-foot poles topped by two 40 pound bat houses into. (That last sentence is grammatically awkward, oh well). But that’s what we did. And everyone was quite proud of theselves, too - very deservedly so. All that remains to be seen is whether the bats will move from their tree houses into these cozy shelters. And whether or not the horses will decide the poles make excellent butt scratchers or not. Whoops!

So you see, I do manage to do some things that are less than boring. And just wait until you see what I’m up to next weekend!! Bwwwaaahahahahaaa!

Ok, it’s been a month, but in all fairness, I’ve been crazy busy and I’m doing the best I can just to get normal stuff done, much less fun stuff like this. Hopefully, things will improve over the next couple of months.

Anyway, let’s talk knitting for a minute, as this is ostensibly a knitting blog. I’ve mentioned before I’ve been on a hat kick this year, and if all goes well I’ll have finished another by this time next week. In the meantime, I’m also working on a worsted weight baby blanket as a commission for a friend. Her niece gave birth to a baby boy last month on the island of St. Thomas. As the hurricane was blowing through. In fact, giving birth on the third floor of the hospital while the roof over the forth floor BLEW OFF!!!!! Mama and baby are fine and the lovely little boy now sports the middle name of, what else, STORM!! So I’m very happy to be able to make something to wrap this little survivor in on behalf of his loving Aunt.

Languishing in the knitting basket are two projects. Of recent vintage is a linen laceweight shawl that I love working on, but that has been cast aside for the more important blanket project. There is also a long suffering blanket of many colors that I will get back to if the weather ever cools off.

And speaking of weather, what the heck!!! The September hurricane, Irma, blew through with great ferocity, sporting wind gusts of up to 65mph. I lost power for about 35 hours and both internet and tv for a week. But in light of all the recent hurrican devastation, not so bad. Now, what will be Tropical Storm Nate is threatening for this weekend. We were saved further trauma from Irma because our weather was actually very unseasonably cool ten, but now it’s hot and humid, so who knows what that means, but hopefully not the threat of tornados. This morning, we rode in a heavy mist, which I actually liked because it made it a little cooler. Chino the horse was not as amused, though not that I blame him, because the rain was probably worse flying in his eyes than in mine.

On the horse front, please reference the blog title - we are riding Gracie! Mark, my trainer, has been working her at an easy walk/trot every day for the last couple of weeks. I’ve been on her several times and while I enjoy her big trot WITH NO LIMPING, it’s clear she and I need to learn to be in better sync with each other. She still sees me as the lady who hands her treats over the fence and not as someone to be guided by. But she’s sweet and willing and we will both get there.

Gracie is also very lucky to have a girl of her very own. Every horse deserves a girl to love her and Gracie has Julia, my friend Katrina’s daughter. Last Saturday and this one, Julia has donned her safety vest and ridden Gracie in the pasture just at walk. Today, they were joined by our friend Hannah and her pony, Rhapsody. Miss Rapsody is a survivor of a series of self-inflicted traumas to her right eye and now has only her left, but you’d never know she has what some might consider a handicap. She not only loves spending time in the pasture with riders, but also volunteers as a therapy horse. Katrina sent me this video of today’s saunter around the small pasture.

So while I”m somewhat afraid to admit Gracie is really all better, we at least seem to have turned a corner. My fingers remained firmly crossed and will remain that way for a while longer. But isn’t it nice to see her enjoying herself!

Have a great weekend.