Kaze Hikaru

Yep, spring is in the air.  Half the world is waking from the dark, cold winter months.  It is a time of rebirth, renewal and awakening.  Many trees are blossoming and early flowers have pushed through the earth.  Things are coming to life!  This week was the Spring Equinox, time when the sun crosses the plane of the earth's equator, making night and day approximately equal in length.





People are experiencing spring fever, which used to refer to an actual illness.  As the weather turns warm, we (myself included) develop sore throats, headaches, and stuffy noses.  More commonly now, “Spring fever” describes a restless feeling after the short days of a long, cold winter.  Common “symptoms” include not being able to focus on work, wanting to be outside... playing, taking long walks, gardening, riding, golfing, etc.  We also associate this 'sickness' with love that's in the air.  Wildlife is acting goofy, and actually many animals are giving birth from earlier times of 'lovin'.  My sister's ewes started lambing the end of last week, and it has been fun to hear about and get photos of their progress.  Photo of one set of triplets with their mom.


Saturday I was up a little before 6:00 and noticed the sky was getting light to the east, in spite of the rain clouds.  I walked Maggie in the rain with thunder and lightening occurring in the distance, which caused her some angst.  So it was a short, quick walk. 

I had planed to spend the majority of the day working on my cruise blog, but the predicted rain was to no avail and I got struck by spring fever.  I had opened all the doors to our porches and enjoyed lunch out there.

And then if that wasn't enough goofing off, I laid out on the deck and read for over two hours.  Also, a little cat nap occurred.  It wasn't quite 70 degrees out, but the warm rays of the sun felt so good.

I walked Maggie on four holes of the golf course, since we both needed the exercise.  Then I made a quick trip to Family Dollar and Dollar General to get some St. Patrick's Day accessories.

I found a long, green, light weight sweater at Family Dollar and some dollar stuff at Dollar General to accessorize my attire for the night.

Once home I got ready and then picked Patty up and we headed to R-Place.  Shirley joined us a little bit later.

It was their St. Patrick's Day party with the Jeff Allen band playing and lots of green decorations, including green beer.  

We sat with several of  'the girls' and had a fun time, especially dancing (video).  Joe's poker game fell through (not enough guys to play) so he arrived a few hours late, but in plenty of time to join in on the fun.
 



Unfortunately, a fight between two guys (with cops and ambulance on the scene) broke up the party early. 

Patty, Shirley, and Joe went home but I went with several others, on to Red's, where more fun and dancing occurred.

I was up at 5am Sunday, even though it was after midnight when I went to bed.  But I took a little nap before Church. 

Then I had an early lunch and headed to the barn where I was going to meet a lady.  I got Amiga, brushed her up and had her ready for the meeting.  I rode her bareback and let her graze out front while waiting for my friend to arrive.

When I got word that my friend would not be able to make it after all, I took Amiga for a ride.  We did some trails, worked on obstacles in the bean field, and rode around the barn yard.  I got off, after almost two hours bareback, and could really feel it in my legs.

Maggie and I went to Patty's house and we all took a walk together.  I just snacked for dinner because Joe was gone, at a poker game.  Too tired to blog, I watched TV and read before bed.

Rain was predicted to occur off and on all day Monday, so it was going to be a blogging day.  However, we only had a few little pop-up showers.  Although it was cloudy and gloomy most of the day.

Lots of time was spent here at my computer, but I was only able to complete one full day of our cruise on that blog.  I did enjoy the birds coming and going.  This Bluebird got impatient waiting on the Morning dove.








I saw Patty at Ballroom Aerobics, lifted weights (just arms) and ran to Food City on the way home. 

The afternoon was spent blogging, reading, napping, tidying-up the house, and walking Maggie for a half hour.  Joe grilled steaks for dinner and I made a sweet potato dish and salad.  We watched a movie before bed as a thunderstorm rolled in.

Joe was on the road 30 minutes after I got up Tuesday morning, heading to Mississippi where he was meeting Greg for hiking, golf, and you guessed it - two poker tournaments.

Maggie had this bed all scrunched up underneath her for a morning nap.  It rained off and on part of the day, as predicted and stayed very cloudy.  I don't recall ever seeing the sunshine.


The pond was quite muddy from the torrential rains we had overnight.



I made a quick trip to Shirley's mid morning where Patty and I went to pick up a house key and instructions for cat care the following week.

Druid was closed for aeriation, and they were working on #17 just after noon.  Notice how gloomy the skies were.

I got dressed to go workout, and then while walking Maggie, decided to skip the gym and just take her on a long walk.  We did five holes of Druid and got rained on coming down the 17th fairway towards home.  Once inside, I got into dry PJs and sat by the fire reading, drying off, and warming up.

Judy posted this photo of Chester and Boz, the Wildwood Stable Welcoming Committee.  They were sitting there waiting for action, which because of the weather, never really happened.

I did a makeshift corn beef and cabbage dish (all the store had was lunch meat) in the microwave and really enjoyed it for dinner.  I like to cook what I like when Joe is gone.  He had cooked himself fish while I was gone on the cruise, so it works well for both of us.

I was so tired of blogging, and so into my Patricia Cornwell book, that reading took precedence until bedtime.  It was sleeting during our last dog walk.

There was an inch of snow on the deck when I stepped outside with the dog at 5:45 Wednesday morning, and it was still coming down.




The walk, driveway, and roads were just wet.  But the snow cover made most things pretty.

I took Hobo some dry food.  He/she was happy to see me.

The ducks also swam over when I went down back with the corn and they were up on the bank eating it before I got very far back up the hill.

It continued to snow and I just sat here blogging, looking out the window, and periodically taking photos.

I had sat in this chair, in shorts and t-shirt, eating lunch and taking photos of the cats and dog, just four days earlier.  But now the kaze hikaru was all gone. 😒 

I skipped Ballroom Aerobics with the intent of going to the gym later, but that never happened.  In fact, I stayed in my loungers all day!

I and the critters just laid low, me blogging and reading, they mostly napped.  When I went out for a dog walk in the afternoon, I decided to get some photos.  It had been snowing most of the day and you can see quite a bit accumulated on this bush.

But much of it had also been melting because the ground temperature was too warm and the air temperature had stayed right around 32 degrees.  I decided to try to capture the beauty, or sadness, of snow covered flowers.

forsythia

cherry

hyacinth and crabapple

lenton rose and daffodil




This is the look I get from all three when it is getting close to dinner time.  I tried to ignore it for quite awhile, but gave in 30 minutes early.  I was getting a sore neck and back from sitting at my desk too long, and my brain was tired of the whole cruise blogging process, especially the difficulties in getting text and photos to appear where I wanted them.  As you can see, I was having the same frustration doing this week's blog.  So after we all had dinner, I switched to reading.  Once I finished my book I then watched two episodes of Fixer Upper.

Thursday was a beautiful sun shiny morning, but only 27 degrees when I got up at 6am.  I like that the sun is up so early now.

I love watching the action of wildlife outside my window as I sit here at my computer.  But today around 7am, work started down by the spillway of the turtle pond dam.





I kept watch as I kept blogging.  Eventually they worked their way along the whole dam, clearing all the cattail from along its edge.  I like how this cleans up the look, even though some natural habitat has been removed.  The cattail have only been there for a few years, and like at our end of the pond, they keep taking over more and more.




During our long morning walk, Maggie and I went down to the pond to check out the work after the crew had left.  The aeriation crew had also put more sand on the green.








Farther down the fairway toward the tee-box, we spotted this snowman.  It must have been built the day before, and I just love people's sense of humor.

At noon I headed into town, to Casa Grande, where I met up with my saddle sisters for lunch.  Seen left, going clockwise, are:  Jean, Judi, Shirley, Deanna, me, Patty, Jo, Jan, Judy, and Cheryl.

We had a great time talking, eating, and just hanging out.  Our party broke up about 2:30 and I headed to Tractor Supply for deer/duck corn.  I couldn't help being drawn to the baby chicks.  They are always a sure sign of spring, and give me that warm, fuzzy feeling.








I spent a long time at K-Mart which has been in the process of selling everything - going out of business.  Merchandise was now 70% off, but very limited and picked over.  I spent 48 bucks on clothing and household supplies, saving nearly $77.00.  I also ran to Wal-Mart to get groceries and supplies I couldn't find at K-Mart.

It was 5:15pm when I got home and I did a quick dog walk, fed everybody, unloaded and unpacked what I had hunted and gathered at the stores and then met Patty and Jean at the 4-way stop at 6:15.  We went back into town where we met Judy to listen to Shirley in the CCC band.  I was home by 9 and in bed by 10.

Friday was another cold, gloomy day with rain forecasted in the afternoon.  I didn't take a single photo all day so have used some taken earlier this week.  I was trying to talk myself into riding with Jan, but discovered the pair of shoes I bought at K-Mart for 70% off consisted of two right shoes.  I had tried one right shoe on at the store and just figured the left would fit and didn't even notice it was also a right shoe until trying to put it on my left foot here at home.  UGH! 

Since K-Mart is closing soon and merchandise is flying off the shelves, I decided I needed to go back right away.  So after lunch, off I went, back to town to K-Mart.  They would only let me exchange the shoe, not return the pair.  But I could not find a left one after searching high and low and everywhere in between.  I was able to talk them into letting me exchange the two right shoes for a different pair, but could not find anything I really liked.  Multipurpose, black tennis shoes is what I ended up with.  And then I did more shopping for more bargains while I was there.

By the time I got home, it was almost dinner time and I was feeling the day had pretty much been a big waste.  In fact, the whole week was fairly unproductive.  I was not proud of myself for only making it to the gym one day this week, for still not getting the cruise blog done, and for snacking on so much junk food.  This just means I am going to have to be a lot more intentional next week.

Carol took this photo a few days ago of her most recent birth.  What a cute little lamb.  She has seven ewes done and nine more yet to deliver.

Energy Follows Thought

In a recent blog, Jane Savoie asks "How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?"  She goes on to explain this.  "Did you know that your body hears you? Your body hears your thoughts and your words."  Like she says, I hear people complain all the time about getting older and the aches and pains that come with it.  And I love her commentary on this:  So, if you want your body to feel old, go ahead and tell it to feel old. After all, the years are marching by so there is evidence that this is true.

But if you want your body to keep feeling young and strong, do your best to send it young and strong messages. Notice where you're still flexible and fit, and give that some thought attention. Appreciate all the ways your body continues to work well, and you'll have more of that! If you think about the aches and pains, you'll have more of THAT! Which one would you prefer? You've probably heard the phrase, "energy follows thought." If you're still young in your thoughts, your body will stay young longer too! It just takes some conscious determination to move your thoughts from one to the other. Simple, but often not easy. But worth the effort, I assure you!  Jane Savoie

I also like friend Judy's saying, "Age is just a number."

The bible speaks on thinking and mindset also.  Proverbs, 23:7: "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."  Our thoughts don't just change our physical selves, they change our mental and spiritual selves.  Genevieve Gerard said:  Because your thoughts have the power to bring energy into manifestation, it becomes important to harness this principle for your benefit.  This is why worry and fear have such a harmful impact on our lives.  The more thought and energy is expended in the creation of negative thought forms, the more likely what is feared and worried about will happen.  So keep your thoughts positive, youthful, happy, determined, caring, etc.

Saturday I was up earlier than usual because the sun is also rising earlier.  I posted last weeks blog and then worked a long time on my cruise blog.  Blogger continues to frustrate, anger and nearly defeat me but that's what brought this weeks blog title and thoughts to mind.  So I took a break from the cruise blog and started on this blog.  ADHD at work.

This is a screen shot from Snapfish.  As you can see, there are over 800 photos to sort through and pick from.  So you can see my dilemma.  There is also so much to tell, but that needs to be edited too.  I know I can get the cruise blog finished, I just want to be done with it sooner than later!

Monita and Maggie share a bed so they could both be in the sun.  I got tired of blogging and because it was fairly nice out, with up coming days looking worse, I decided to go ride with Jan.









I was a little ahead of Jan on time, so rode Amiga to the bean field and let her eat until Jan was ready to hit the trail.


We rode into the Glade by way of the power lines (video) and enjoyed the gravel and dirt roads because the footing was so good.  We did some speed work and messed around with speed and directional changes, asking our horses to go away from each other (video), towards each other, and beside each other at different speeds.

I dropped by Patty's on the way home to do cat care and then settled in for the evening when I got home, after moving all the clocks ahead an hour.

Sunday I started the day blogging, finally made it to church after too long away, did more blogging, got word that Joe had been knocked out of another tournament just shy of winning some money, went to Patty's for cat care and then on to the gym.









I came home sore and tired but it felt good.  Joe was on his way home from Jacksonville, FL but not due to arrive until after I was asleep.  Too tired to blog after dinner, I watched TV and then read in bed.

It started pouring rain as I was falling asleep and did so again when Joe got home over an hour later.  

I was up Monday morning well ahead of Joe and it started snowing as the sun was coming up.  The snow started coming down quite hard about 7:45 and I took this first photo.  It continued to snow hard for over an hour.  The second photo taken at 8:30 and the third one at 9:00.  Notice how the golf course was getting whiter.

 

It was another day dedicated to blogging, but I really didn't make that much progress.  I think I am putting too much energy into this thought process.  Ugh.  And the cruise blog is becoming a short story.  

I took Maggie on her second walk of the day because Joe was slow to get moving. She loves running around with sticks, which I let her do after she has taken care of business.

By noon the sun was out and shining in the back windows.  I moved my computer to the dinning room table to better see the photos.  Monita took advantage of the sun's heat.

It wasn't much longer and all the snow had melted off as you can see in this photo I tried to take of a bluebird at the feeder.






Joe and I caught up on each other's lives from over the past three weeks and started making future plans.  I only got outside to walk the dog, move the neighbor's trash cans in, and feed Patty's cats.  I also read and napped to take a break from blogging.  And next thing I know, night fall has occurred.  This (video) was posted on Facebook from the Dorchester web-cam.
The day was ended watching both Survivor shows.

Tuesday I got up before 3am, unable to get back to sleep, and got almost a full cruise day of blogging done by sun up.  But then I took a nap.  The deck was a little icy and the wind brisk while putting out bird feeders and walking Maggie.  A little later I spotted Hobo hiding out, in wait for some poor, unsuspecting bird.  Actually, all the birds had pretty much skedaddled.  A knock on the window and the cat moved on.




I had a third breakfast at 10:30 and then headed into town to shop, after going to Patty's on the way out of the Glade.  Four stores later, I arrived home with much needed household supplies and cat, dog, and bird feed.

Once I got everything unloaded and put away, it was time to go to the gym.  I really felt a need for the stretch class.  I had to keep moving to get my full weight workout in first.  As usual, I felt great after the workout, stretch, and hot shower.

I tried doing some more blogging after dinner, but didn't last long.  Early risers got to go to bed early.




I didn't have long to blog Wednesday morning because I left for the gym before 9:00.  I hit the rowing machine before Ballroom Aerobics.  After class I went to the Blood Mobile (in the same parking lot) to donate.  Too bad you can't lose weight this way.  I don't usually take their free t-shirt, but liked this one.  Next was the Health Fair, also at the Wellness Complex and then to Patty's for one last day of cat care.

After lunch I tried blogging, intermixed with two loads of laundry, a long dog walk, and a nap in the sun while reading.

Joe had dropped Maggie and I off at Shirley's on his way to his card game.  We were also dropping off a chain saw.  I cut through Stonehenge Golf Course on our walk home.  They had their carts out for spring cleaning.  There had to be at least 45 of them.  Maggie was unsure about posing in one.

It was a quiet evening at home but not a productive one.  My book has gotten very good so is interfering with blogging.

I was out the door early Thursday also, to get to the barn by 8:00, in preparation for the farrier.  I brushed Amiga and then rode her (with just a halter and reins) out front to let her graze while we waited for Tom.  He was not early for a change and Cheryl had already arrived, so I let her go first.  It was 9:30 by the time Tom started on Amiga.

Amiga was kind of fidgety during shoeing, for some reason.  I have kept shoes off the back since December and have decided to leave them off indefinitely and see how she does with that.  In this photo she is heading back to the herd.

I did a little blogging once home, but it wasn't long before I went back to the barn.  Jan, Deanna and I were going to ride into the Glade together.  I was early so rode up to the bean field and rode around barrels and weave poles for some practice.  Then I let Amiga graze until Jan and Deana (seen left) arrived. 

We took the Holly trail (which wasn't too bad) into the Glade and then met up with Jim.  We rode Marmaduke which continues into the Kirkstone loop.  Unfortunately it was hard packed gravel (lack of rain) and Amiga was acting very tender footed (having just been trimmed).  I let her walk off on the edge, in the grass as much as she wanted.

On our way back from Lake Kirkstone, we unexpectedly met up with Betty and Helen.  Well, then it was photo opt time.         

Helen on Excelencio.

Betty on Dorado and Jim on Zip.

Deanna on Sandy and Jan on Cash.   

And Betty got a few photos of me on Amiga.

Look how cute my horse is.  I just love her.

Jim decided it was time to move on, and we ladies soon followed.  Pretty soon Jim headed home to Terry's and then it was just us girls.

Jan, Deanna, and I pealed off the main trail saying bye to Helen and Betty.  We three headed down the power lines for home.  Jan took this (video) of Deana and I leading the way.  I was letting Amiga choose her footing to avoid rocks, which is why we were weaving all over the place

I had been in the saddle three hours and was a little sore.  I hoped Amiga's back feet weren't too sore.  

Home at 4:30, started dinner, Joe and I ate once he got home from golfing and then we watched both Survivor shows.

Zorro, far left, enjoying a sunny morning with his friends.

Friday I had planned a morning of blogging, but discovered Joe was going to be busy from 11:30 through the end of the day, so I had to get moving early to get his help with accomplishing a project Jan and I had.


We loaded some tools in the SUV and met Jan at the barn.  Then we loaded things at the barn to build some obstacles.

Joe drove us out to the bean field and we spent an hour setting up some obstacles.  I did some trimming along the trail in a few spots, we went to the ghost town to salvage some stuff, and we collected rock to hold the tarp down.  Once finished, Joe headed to an appointment and Jan and I went to lunch, getting sandwiches at Waggles since Dorchester was closed for aeration.

A little after noon, Jan and I saddled up our horses and rode up to the bean field to play.  Here is a (video) of Jan jumping Cash and also this (video) of me taking Amiga through the weave poles.









We horsed around for quite awhile and then rode some of the trails.  I rode for almost 2 1/2 hours and was a little sore after dismounting.  (video) of Amiga when put back out to pasture.

After a shower, I sat here to work on my cruise blog.  This thing has actually become a combination picture book, novel, photo album, and scrapbook.

A bit later a herd of nine deer came and hung out down back for awhile.  (All I needed was more distraction.)  Eventually a pair of duck came up from the pond and wandered on up the back hill.  Several deer followed them.  Then something frightened the ducks (maybe Hobo under the deck) and they took flight back to the pond while also causing all the deer to take flight.  They fled across the creek, up the other hill and onto the green.

 

The evening activity was the Moonlighters Dance at the library building.  Shirley picked me up and Judy and Patty met us there.  A little later Joe joined us.  Memory Road was the band, and I still feel like their rock and roll music is a little slower in tempo than it was originally written.  They also played a lot of slow songs.



We managed to get up and dance some, but it was fairly low key.  I did enjoy sitting and chatting with everyone.









The three ladies left shortly after the second break, but Joe was willing to stay a while longer so I could get a little more dancing out of my system.

As I post this, I continue to work on my cruise blog.  I got to keep the energy moving before the thoughts of the fun vacation fade.  Also, one more comment.  I don't want you to misinterpret the idea that just thinking something, can change it.  Although I do believe in and have witnessed the power of prayer.  However, our thoughts should lead us to action.  If we think we can't lose weight, build muscle, improve flexibility and balance, we won't do anything about it. If we believe it can be done, and we work for it, we can achieve it.