This autumn day is yet another gorgeous sliver of time on the earth. The other evening, I found a folder of NEF files from my Arizona vacation last year. Photos were processed during the vacation and put on my smugmug gallery. The best ones were chosen quickly at that time. What I found were photos that were good enough but just didn’t make the cut last year. With that you have a photo above. It looks like a shot I took while we were driving down the road and it may not be all in all with composition, but who cares. It’s captures open space, fresh air, what I love about the desert.

I have found a lot of things recently. As difficult as life has become with my not working, I have never been happier. My baby is the center of my life now and I am taking on intersting projects and learning how to do it all myself: baking bread, sewing, gardening, and from time to time something with my car. When I was much younger, I did just about everything myself. I didn’t realize how much I now enjoy managing my home after having a job for 5 years requiring overnight travel.

It’s good to be home.

The horses enjoy cool days. The mare especially likes afternoons that are not blazing under the Texas sun. She was prancing around yesterday for no known reason. Correction. She was prancing around heading over to the stallion pen when Doc is and then stands there for hours on end.

Carter, the horse in the above photo, is like that too but is much more playful. My husband and I went for our regular Sunday walk after church yesterday. I took a lead rope with us so that we might take Carter out to the pond and then photograph him running across the pasture. We took this photo instead.

We have a lot of work to do with our horses. We both need to be riding every single day and getting these horses broke of their bad habits. The stallion has his own issues simply due to his gender. He’s a good horse though overall. Carter is older now, more mature, but still spooks easily. Arabians are like that. For the most part, he is easy to handle and only needs consistent daily work.

On our Sunday ride, we took Doc and Carter to the north pasture on the other side. There is a gate there that I had opened earlier and it was interesting to see how Carter crossed it. He knew there was always a gate there and when we walked passed, he began walking sideways as if to walk around something that wasn’t there. Keeping him forward moving and focuses we took the trail along the fence toward the forest. At the entrance of the forest is where all went wrong. Doc decided he was not moving anymore. He was finished; there was nothing there for him. Carter typically is not a leader horse, however I am discovering that is changing. I lead but he was very jumpy and nervous.

I did some confidence exercises with him before heading down the trail, meanwhile my SIL was struggling to get Doc to focus. For safety, we got off and walked our horses along the trail and mounted once at the clearing.

We believe in ending things on a good note. It is important the a horse trusts you and that he not dread a ride due to previous bad experience. We concluded after some time there and rode back with no event. In fact, the ride back to that gate was quite nice even though goblins lurked in the woods and Carter was a bit on edge. He did fine though. Doc did well on the way back and most horses do when they are as gate and buddy sour as ours are. It wasn’t one of our better days, but there are many more ahead and I think Doc will do just fine on upcoming rides.

This shot taken today, maybe yesterday at noon of this gorgeous bloom in my front garden basking in the November sunshine. Nikon D50 and all associated settings.

The only light on in the room is the one over my desk while Seals and Croft play Summer Breeze. Baby’s head on my left shoulder and Snow cat asleep on the floor near my feet in a curled supine position. She tends to sleep on her back like that with not a care in the world. The cool autumn air is felt on my skin from the front door I left open. I like nights like this.

Tonight’s moon is strung up over the highschool football field–the heartbeat of Texoma. The night wind blows lost dreams across empty pastures whispering to swaying shadows. Next track on my collection of classics: Buffalo Springfield.

I tucked my sleepy baby in with a kiss on his forehead as a lock of my dark brown hair fell across his soft cheek. Closing the door halfway behind me, I went to the dark kitchen to fill a small bowl of Late Night Taco Doritos and sat down to write down my own dreams.

“There’s something happening here
What it is ain’t exactly clear”

This post relates to a challenge by Surface & Surface Photography. Since most of my photography over the past 5 years is along backroads of rural America, I already have quite a few sign pictures in my collection. If you are paying attention to what you pass by along the road or trail, you can catch some pretty interesting signage. Don’t miss out. There’s a whole world out there zipping right past you. Don’t miss out on a thing!

As you come in to Turkey, Texas, you are greeted by this big metal art sign. This is a very popular kind of art in this part of Texas. In fact, for miles as you drive down the lonesome 380 across the Texas Panhandle and New Mexico to Roswell, almost every ranch will have this massive black custom signs at their gates or mailbox. I have posted this photo before in the past but it is one I have always enjoyed looking at.

Today is Friday. I shall be making a drive across horse country this weekend and am sure I will find something interesting for next Friday.

This photo was taken this weekend and is my favorite one of all. I say that and will have another opinion on the next one. He’s seven months old on the 8th. He loves riding in the wagon and sitting in his granddad’s lap on the lawn mower. He’s been on the horse a couple of times in the saddle with me. But I think the wagon is his favorite of all.

In this photo he is situated so that he can see the horses at the gate at feeding time. He loves looking at them and they are all the entertainment a mother could need for her baby.