good times with friends

Isabel had a beautiful wedding last Friday. She is off to a wonderful honeymoon and we wish her the best. This is a photo at her reception with Kathy and Rhem, dear friends who make the holidays much more festive. Just keep Rhem away from the whipped cream- actually keep me away from the whipped cream! Inside joke. Christmas festivities are in the planning and I am looking forward to Sarah and Kevin's visit. We are kicking December off with Sam's birthday dinner this Friday. He and Stephanie share a birthday weekend and I am happy to go eat Mexican with them! Hunting is going well and I am also happy to have some joint meets coming up. Thinking about going to Belle Meade's first Hunt Week in January. I was thoroughly bummed yesterday when I got home from hunting and realized I had left my gun and radio on the horse trailer fender. Miraculously the radio stayed on the fender all the way home!- the gun -NO. I looked and looked for it, dejectedly planning to report it lost. Then I got a phone call from Sheriff's office asking if I had a Taurus hand gun. Yes! Someone found it on the side of the road and turned it in- they must have been shocked to find a loaded gun ( even tho' only bird shot). I am so relieved that someone found it - felt terrible about being so dumb to lose it! Happy ending.

Thanksgiving dinner 2012

We had a wonderful dinner with family. Annie's first holiday dinner with our silly English tradition of "crackers"- she laughed. So blessed and the Redskins had a huge win!! over the arch-rival Cowboys. Perfect ending! Then we went to see final Twilight movie- it was very good- time to end it but fun, good epic battle . The "good" vampires win, of course.

beautiful sunrise...remember to be thankful.

A beautiful sunrise reminds me to stop and remember all the beauty in my life. I am very thankful for my family, the love of my man and my children. You enrich my life beyond measure. Thank you to my friends who are always there when I need to reach out and touch someone! I want to remind everyone to appreciate this beautiful world with all its frailties and problems and injustices. Remember the sun rises every day and sometimes takes our breath away with this single moment. Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy to have family coming for Thanksgiving

I am delighted to have family coming to visit over Thanksgiving, Will and Annie. We will all eat too much but thoroughly enjoy it. I am making pies and prepping the kitchen, making timelines to cook a turkey dinner and go foxhunting all on the same day. Crazy tradition but one I do love. Have to squeeze in time to change bandages on the weanling that just had surgery !  I am about to go out and attempt the first change- hope I can do by myself!   We just came back from Lexington, KY and the Keeneland sales. Had a wonderful time, seeing some very expensive new and old stallions and some  fabulous stallion facilities. Hill n'Dale looks like a French chateau's stable with Seattle Slew's statue in the center. Midnight Lute stands there. We took a picture with A P Indy, the grand daddy of the Kentucky studs. Now retired but still enjoys center stage at Lane's End. Happy Thanksgiving to everybody. Remember to give thanks and hug all your loved ones.

a hound's delight

A friend took this photo of a hound at Opening Hunt. I believe the fun and joy of hunting is obvious here and contagious. I feel just like this fellow when galloping across open fields, tho' my tongue is definitely not this long!! We dodged a bullet yesterday from another storm that skirted us. It was, in fact, a lovely fall day. I rode at a friend's farm where we were supposed to hunt and went larking, jumping all the coops and fences that we rarely go over anymore. My riding companion said she hadn't even known they were there. We definitely lucked out from the past two storms with minimal tree damage and happily, my streams are still flowing.

dramatic sky

Today is our rescheduled Opening Hunt (thanks to Superstorm Sandy). The sky was a dramatic pink early this morning as I was up with dogs who do not subscribe to daylight savings.  They happily went back to bed as I went out to feed and organize our first formal hunt foray of the year. Opted not to braid, as the rescheduled day is also a Junior Hunt and I never really like to braid anyway. It should be a beautiful day and I enjoyed the ritual donning of a crisp white stock, tying it tightly at my neck with its gold pin. Something elegant and from a time gone bye about a stock tie. The husband looks very good in his white britches and scarlet coat. I just realized it reminds me of Downton Abbey and what must have been a time consuming habit of dressing formally for dinner every evening. They looked really good tho'.

after the Hurricane

This was the sunrise yesterday. Beautiful. We got our power back about 10PM last night . Whoopee, funny how that seems to right the world, the ability to have instant power. Now I feel like I can go back to my usual routine while, without power, I let my life be interrupted and I sat in front of a fire with a good book and just stopped for awhile. It actually was nice and I had been meaning to read that book for awhile. No power gave me permission! to take a break and relax. I think mentally I will cut the power more often! It was a beautiful morning after but heartbreaking to see the devastation on the Jersey shore. No funny jokes about Jersey Shore now, those people have a tough rebuild ahead. I watch all that oceanwater in the streets and people wading in it and I wonder , " do sharks come in ?" I would be a little worried about what was in that water! I hope it recedes quickly for them. And I am grateful for once we were spared a Hallowe'en snowstorm- 30 inches in West Virginia! However I am happy that my streams are full again, first time in months. The water did not even overrun the banks during this hurricane which lets me know how low our water table must have been.