Still Life with Camera

I see that my last post was in mid 2014, very shortly before my daughter was diagnosed with metastatic colon cancer.  My past three years have been spent as a caregiver, driver, companion, whatever was needed as she underwent the arduous process of trying to get well once again.  The good news is, she has now been cancer-free (that is to say, cancer that is detectable by all the tools modern medicine can bring to bear) for four months.  I say that with some trepidation and a lot of skepticism because of the pernicious nature of cancer.  All the tools - MRI, CT, PET scans, blood tests, etc., can only detect cancer at the macro level, an eye opening bombshell for us (naive as we were) when after her first "cancer-free" party she relapsed for the first time.  However, one thing we have learned is to live one day at a time, no matter how difficult that is, no matter how the mind wants to scurry down the what if path, and no matter how hard it is to get back to "no...

Weezie has definite preferences about where and how far we walk. She also "sees" things I don't see. She takes specific detours on the paths. I suppose she smells something that needs to be avoided. It would be cool to have her set of sensors sometimes, like when Merlin transformed Arthur into a bird or a squirrel. So what would appear - a big coyote urine "Do Not Trespass" sign? And then maybe I would understand why dogs just have to roll in the rankest of all odors. Yesterday at Fourth Lake, we saw a bunch of small birds dive-bombing a red-tailed hawk. They weren't just harassing the hawk, they were making contact - hitting the hawk so hard that it juddered in flight. It was amazing. They were too high for me to be able to tell what the attackers were but they were about the size of robins or blackbirds. There were lots of thistles along the trail which made me think of Monarch butterflies and how their numbers are very low and all of a s...

On Tuesday, Robert and I went to the Chicago Botanic Gardens. Of course, we went to the train exhibit. Robert went up to the ticket agent and sang, Has anyone said, "I need a ticket to ride. I need a ticket to Ri-hi-ide." And she let us in for free. Plus it was Senior Tuesday so admission for the car was only $10. There are advantages to getting older.

My good friend, Susan, is a psychologist and a horsewoman with a strong interest in Equine-assisted Therapy. (Here are a couple of links if you want more info about it. She uses her wonderful Andalusian gelding, Fiado, in this therapy. She's on her way to a Bettina Drummond clinic in Michigan right now and gave Fiado a beauty treatment yesterday as part of the prep. He's white after all and loves to roll in the dirt and whatever may be on the dirt (if you get my drift). Anyway, we thought it would be a great opportunity to take some new pictures of him and to update her website with them. He's a great horse with a lot of personality and the day was beautiful. We got some great pictures! Fiado and Susan Isn't he gorgeous? And photogenic.

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.