Still Life with Camera

After a beautiful walk at Raven Glen yesterday, Gracie and I came back to a car which seemed alternately to be dead or possessed. My always reliable car wouldn't start. At the same time it made weird little rhythmic sounds and lights which didn't stop when I turned the key off. Robert thought maybe the computer brain had a psychotic break. And our always reliable USAA roadside service also let us down. First they got the address wrong and dispatched help from hundreds of miles away. After we corrected that, the wait was again over an hour. So Gracie and I finished our walk a little after noon and Robert (who bless his heart came to get me in his car and waited for the service person) didn't get home until almost 4. Not the day either of us had planned.

Weezie and I had a nice walk this morning in the fog and mist. The geese were leaving Lake Aldo Leopold in small groups and heading for the stubble of the cornfield for a snack. The picture below is in color not black and white although it's really hard to tell. Just that kind of day. We're moving in a few weeks so I tried to get some last pictures of our house and the general atmosphere of this community which I'm going to miss very much. Living in the Midwest encourages you to develop a palate for very subtle coloration. A friend of mine from the Bahamas who arrived here for the first time in the winter thought that some awful plague had killed all the vegetation. On the other hand when I used to travel to Puerto Rico, I had the opposite reaction: everything seemed too gaudy...but not for very long. There are a million shades of brown, russet, taupe, yellow, green that you would never notice if they weren't the main event. We walk by a couple of small lakes on th...

Fall is definitely here. I forget on an annual basis how much rain we get in September and October so I'm always unprepared. Navaroan and the other horses at the barn have to wait their turn for a turnout spot that's not too muddy. That and the cooler temperatures makes for some pretty fresh ponies. A couple of weeks ago, Navaroan seemed to be tripping over his hind legs an awful lot, but I thought it was because his feet had gotten so long. He gets reshod every 6 weeks but he could really use it every 4-5, if I could afford it. Last week I had a dream that something was wrong with his hind end and the next day my trainer called and said he was lame. The vet couldn't come until Monday, so she did flexion tests and hock xrays and then thought she really needed to make sure his suspensory ligaments weren't involved. She came back yesterday and did some blocks. The good news is that it really is "just" his hocks, both sides. She says he's a 2 on the 0-5 l...