EARTH DAY. I KNOW, THAT WAS SO LAST WEEK!

Let's catch up. I bought a tree and started a new mixed-media piece to celebrate Earth Day. The weather was too dismal to plant the tree on Wednesday, but It is safely tucked in the ground now and our whole property is bursting with new growth. 

Japanese Maple.

Layered paint, paper, charcoal, and ink on canvas, then printed the piece on fabric and added more layers of fabric and stitching.

As we're just back from the East Coast Paddlesports Festival, I added a kayak and paddleboard. Don't laugh at my little stitchy stick figures.
The apple blossoms have peaked, but are still lovely.

"Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of color, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night." ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

All the wild things are stirring as well. On Sunday morning a fox chased Fitz through our woods and he shot straight up a loblolly pine to escape. Fortunately, Mike heard the commotion and chased the fox away. Abby is shedding like crazy and I am tossing all the hair from grooming out for the nesting birds.

The martin house is a beehive of activity. I'm thinking there may be no vacancies this year. The bluebird house is also occupied, though I'm not sure the occupants are bluebirds

Down by the river, the osprey are nesting.

It was good to be home on the weekend for a change and even better because our daughter was home as was her best friend, our almost daughter. Did a little pony shopping on Saturday afternoon with the girls. Took this guy for a test drive. Hmmm....

More on this next week. Hopefully. 
Stay positive, blog friends. XO.

PHOTOGRAPHY

For the past few weeks, I've been taking a digital photography course at Chesapeake College. I am determined to make the most of my DSLR camera and not rely on the automatic settings. With one week left in the course, I have already decided to continue and take the next level. Spent a little time today testing different settings here on our own property. Tomorrow I am going back to Outstanding Dreams Alpaca Farm to photograph "shearing day." Can't wait.

Our apple tree is in full bloom, but with unwelcome guests...

These will have to be dealt with, in an environmentally friendly way. We are ever conscious of how close we are to the river, and our impact on the Chesapeake Bay.
I've spent an inordinate amount of time rounding up horse feed this week. Several months ago our local tack shop closed, so I've been relying on unreliable Tractor Supply for horse feed. Horses, for those of you who don't know, have delicate digestive systems, Changes in feed must be made gradually, so it's very frustrating to be told your feed will be in, no sorry it didn't come in, we hope it will come in, no idea when it will come in..... and on and on. Really, their customer service stinks! Had to drive to Delmar, Delaware this morning to find a feed that had the 10% protein that Abby needs. Horses don't throw up, whatever goes in the front, must come out the back, which is why it is so important to feed correctly. A bad belly ache in a horse can be fatal.

I saw the first buttercups in the pasture today. Now I need to remember the name of the stuff we sprayed last year to get rid of them.

Also, the dandelions are enormous. I really do need to try my hand at dandelion wine.

Hope you have a great weekend planned. Be sure to check back for the alpaca shearing pics. XO.

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.