WEEKEND UPDATE

It's apple blossom time. 

 I know. I've neglected you these past few days. Found it a little hard to focus last week in light of current events.
There were little dramas here. Good ones and bad ones, but all's well that ends well. 
Colic is a word that sends shivers up the spine of everyone who knows and loves horses. A belly ache in a horse is a scary business! For non-horse people, the horse digestive tract is a one-way street. What goes in the front must come out the back. MUST. Colic can be a relatively minor discomfort caused by gas, or a full scale emergency due to a blockage or twist, resulting in surgery, or even death.  Abby, who had several episodes of colic in the first few years that we owned her, has been colic-free for quite some time. On Tuesday evening she began to show signs... stretching, pawing, and not that interested in her nighttime treats. With Abby, that treat thing is a dead giveaway. 

A little scruffy-faced at the moment as she sheds her winter coat.

We medicated her, walked her, and decided it was too early to call the vet. She just didn't look very uncomfortable. Abby is a drama queen with absolutely no pain tolerance, and I have been through enough of this with her to know when an hour or so of "wait and see" makes sense. Fairly quickly she began to get her sass back, and then presented us with a steaming pile of manure, a bouquet of roses to a horse lover dealing with colic. Nevertheless, I spent the night downstairs on the sofa, so I could pop out and check on her through the night. You just never know with colic. She is fit as a fiddle now and I am speculating that she had an excess of gas owing to the lush spring grass coming on so quickly. Actually, the excess gas is fact. The cause is speculation. While I may have made this sound like no big deal, my heart was pounding and my own stomach was in knots.

Now for some great news, our daughter's boyfriend, whom we have come to know and love these past several years, successfully defended his mathematics thesis last week. We can now call him Doctor. So proud and happy for him. Here's his graduation present...

The cat is optional.

In the "giving Mom gray hair" department, our son called on Saturday to say that he was visiting a friend in Philly, and they'd like to come down to the shore to spend the night and have some home cooking. Hurray! Though I did wonder why Patrick would take the train to Philly, only to turn around and drive to the shore. We should be there around 5pm, he says. I made a cake. At 4:30, his dad receives a text, "We're 3000 feet over Milford. Can you pick us up at the Easton airport." What the what?? Airport? What I did not know was that his friend, Dave had recently received his pilot's license. When I say recently, I mean last Wednesday. I mean this was Dave's first flight without an instructor! They were very proud of themselves! These guys have been friends since their undergrad days, and even though they're both extremely busy and in different cities, they still make the time to get together and give me gray hair. Someday, I'll tell you about their vacation in the Ukraine. Trans-Siberian Railway. Nothing to worry a mother there!

In other news, I'm playing with some new photo-editing software. This...

Becomes this...

How cool is that?
I've got lots more to tell you. Found a fun new shop in St. Michaels. Working on a new art quilt. Met with a kitchen planner. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow, okay?
Happy Earth Day!! XO.