Still Life with Camera

In case you're not familiar with the Parelli method, here's what they say about it on their web site: the Parelli method of natural horsemanship is a holistic approach to natural horse training based on developing a natural relationship with your horse through understanding his/her nature and understanding the world from the horse's point of view. I'm a beginner at it so we're still at the 'On Line' level, meaning we're using a halter and a lead rope - get it - the horse is on the line... I'm enjoying it immensely. Since horses are herd animals they're always re-negotiating their place in the herd. If I were a horse, I'm guessing I would always be at the bottom of the heap because I'm such a marshmallow. That's not a good thing since Spirit outweighs me by at least 1000 pounds. Don't get the wrong idea, he's a sweetie, but I need to be the one who's deciding which way we're going, how close he can get to me...

The evenings are getting quite cool now, down right nippy some evenings to our summer thin blood.  Robert and I went out the other night and picked a couple of colanders full of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and herbs.  I particularly wanted to get some of the basil inside since it's such a tender plant. Look at those fine green tomatoes. We've never really gotten the knack for what to do with them - we tried pickles last year and they were truly awful. This may be the best stock we've had though. They're a purple heirloom type which all seemed to get too ripe before I harvested them during the summer, but now they're super crisp and firm. So we made Fried Green Tomatoes with Basil Mayonnaise and they were delicious. Robert made himself BLT's and I put mine on salad greens. We used this recipe from Epicurious. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Fried-Green-Tomatoes-with-Basil-Mayonnaise-355938 Give it a try! I was also surprised by the lavender ...

The IDCTA (Illinois Dressage and Combined Training Association)Finals were held over the weekend at Silverwood Farm in Camp Lake, Wisconsin. Two of our friends from Sunflower Farms were in the Finals and Susan and I drove up Sunday afternoon to watch them ride. It was a perfect fall day. Susan in the Viewing Stand (I waited until after she stopped sticking her tongue out at me before I took the picture. Such self-control.) Warm-ups with riders and horses of all shapes, colors and sizes. Here are Joann, her mother from Greece and her horse Annie Oakley. Annie's mouthing off here, kind of reminds me of Mr. Ed. She did a lot of whinnying yesterday, probably because she hadn't been away from Sunflower Farms for 2 years and she was calling for her friends. Joann and Oakley warming up. Connie, our trainer and teacher, giving Alyssa and Taylor some last minute tips. I love this picture. Alyssa and Taylor.

Last weekend Robert and I drove to Omaha, Nebraska, where he grew up and graduated from high school. The occasion was his 50th HS reunion from Westside High School. 50 years!!! As the spousal unit otherwise known as of absolutely no interest to the high school class, I took my camera along and shot pictures. I have driven many, many miles this summer and this trip added another 1000. (ARG!) The Friday evening reception was at a lovely art gallery, Anderson O'Brian Fine Arts in downtown Omaha. What a great place for this reception! Here are a few shots to showplace the ambience. Here's another spouse grateful for the venue. So we drove to Omaha - 500 miles - on Friday and went to this lovely reception. On Saturday, we took a bus tour of Omaha. It struck me as a little gem of a city. Many families who made their fortune there have given back to support the arts and sports. Warren Buffet is only one of many. And by the way, my husband and his brother Tom used to shovel M...

Joey's Americorps job with Habitat for Humanity began September 13th in Wichita. She and I picked up a 16-foot Penske truck last Wednesday afternoon and the whirlwind began. At the hotel in Wichita - why do my children always make faces for the camera? Our friends, the Dykemans, gave her a ton of furniture so our first trip with the truck was to their house to pick up lamps, a love seat, patio furniture, a night stand...They basically furnished her whole apartment, bless their generous hearts! Joey's little patio with furniture from the Dykemans We finished loading the truck at our house at about 9:00 pm and left Thursday morning at 6:30 am. I drove the truck and Joey drove her car. We both had GPS units and cell phones so we tag teamed for almost 14 hours to Wichita. The truck was quite new - it only had 9000 miles on it - and drove easily. The only problem was that I got rained on inside the cab. Luckily we only had rain for a few hours. Our Penske truck - boy were we happy w...

Friday was move in day for Charlie. We left the house at 6:00 am since the dorm he's in is a highrise in downtown Chicago. Neither one of us wanted to worry about where to park, etc. We arrived by about 7:15 and parked in the lot right next door to The Buckingham, as the dorm is called. It's a building shared by 2 or 3 downtown colleges: Columbia College (where Charlie is going), Roosevelt, and De Paul, I think. Charlie's moving on Columbia had things pretty well organized. They had "speed packs" available for us, which made it really easy to move a lot in one load. Those of us who were early had to wait a bit until the RAs got things organized inside. Why is everyone smilling except Charlie? Once we got inside they had different stations set up for emergency contact information, getting ids made, etc. Here's the view to the west from Charlie's room on the 18th floor. That's the public library in the middle of the pic with all the...

On Sunday, Susan and I drove up to Silverwood Farms in Camp Lake, Wisconsin, to watch our trainer's horses in a show.  Of course, I forgot to check my camera battery before we left, so I only got a couple of pictures before the camera died, darn it.  It was a sunny warm day, hotter than forecasted but lovely in the shade with a little breeze.  Connie has 2 young warmbloods, Dalisco and Amor.  They're both amazingly talented, especially given their ages and amount of training.  Daphne, another trainer, rode Dalisco, riding level 4, tests 1 and 2 and got firsts both days.  Connie rode Amor in some training level tests. And found out that, at least on Sunday, she and Amor were number 1 nationally in the USDF standings. Cool, huh?  Here's Daphne warming up Dalisco. And here's Connie cooling him down after level 4, test 2.  Geez, what a complicated test.  It looked really hard to ride (remember that I'm a beginner and that even doing cir...