As you can guess from the post’s title, this week’s challenge is the color yellow yellow flowers – I forgot and was thinking the challenge was the color yellow, good thing I checked the post!
Chestnut blooms in the barnyard – they’re at least two weeks early this year!
Birdsfoot Trefoil growing in one of the fence braces.
Okay, this one’s not a flower – the tansy isn’t blooming yet but the Cinnabar Moth caterpillars are yellow…
A Twelve-spotted Skimmer enjoying his perch. This post must have been a favorite because he kept circling back for a landing whenever I got too close.
Found this cute little guy lurking in a flat of tomato plants.
Hope everyone had a merry Christmas! One of my favorite gifts was this beautiful leather cuff with oak tooling that matches my saddle almost perfectly!
Nothing like a little “spring cleaning” thanks to a computer virus. It’s gone now but the computer is so giddy about all the empty space that it doesn’t know what to do with its self!
A shot from the archives to add a touch of summer to the winter weather…
Had our first hard frost of the fall last night; it actually got cold enough to freeze the puddles and leave a thin sheet on the water buckets. It snowed about an inch the night before, then the sky cleared…
Found this poor guy hiding on a fence post – he must have been freezing! (pun not intended).
Thanks to the late, wet summer the chestnuts are considerably smaller this year, and just now starting to drop and be cut by the Steller Jays.
It’s the middle of October and the strawberries are still going strong!
A year ago today I found this ad on Craigslist:
Red Dun gelding Quarter Horse. Registered AQHA name The Talk of the Town aka “Willy”. 19 yrs old, great for beginner/intermediate. Used for lessons, shows, 4-H, trail riding, beach and rodeo. He is a gorgeous, smart and all around fun horse, but haven’t spent the quality time he deserves. I took lessons on him for seven years and he knows everything and more!
The month before, at the beginning of September, I had to put Nick down. He was getting so old that his teeth were worn down so much that he couldn’t properly chew his food. No matter what I tried, I just couldn’t keep weight on him. His last five years had been good ones; it was time to put him out of his misery.
I had planned on waiting to getting another horse until spring when the grass was coming on. Though it certainly couldn’t hurt to look and get an idea about the market, right? When I found the ad, he was pretty much everything I was looking for – and a dun! – despite being a couple years older than the range I was considering. And, he was relatively close.
I quickly replied to the ad and we waiting anxiously for a response. After trading several emails, the owner, who lived a hundred miles or so away from the place where she was boarding him , said she couldn’t make it on the afternoon that we’d agreed on, but to go ahead and go look at him anyway. I’d asked my trainer to come along because she knew what she was looking at better than I did.
We found the place relatively easy. Willy was out in the pasture with a couple other horses, and immediately quit grazing to come investigate and beg some treats. He was very friendly and not standoffish at all. My trainer assessed him and said that he was slightly sickle-hocked and a bit cresty in the neck, and with exercise his back would come up; overall, he looked pretty good.
Afterward, we agreed to meet that weekend at a local arena so I could try him out. I was so excited! When we got to the arena, he was already tacked up and his owner was warming him up. After being idle for seven/eight years while his owner was in the army, he needed a little warm up. I got on him and he was great, did everything I asked willingly. His western pleasure-like trot was to die for! That settled it, I was definitely in love. And the rest is history!
Found this cool partial spider web on a fence post on my way out to do chores yesterday morning.
Got so busy last week that I missed Sunday Stills! At least there’s always next week. 😉
When I first saw the bee, I thought it had gotten too cold to fly, since it was pretty overcast. But then I noticed the white spider – practically the same color as the rose – with a death grip on bee’s neck. Without the two red stripes on its back, it blends in incredibly well. Did a quick Internet search and found out that the spider is a Goldenrod Crab Spider, which is either white or yellow, depending on what color flower they are hunting on, and they can change between the two colors.
It’s a toss up between the super macro mode and zoom – both are equally awesome!
Icicle edition!
My late contribution – had to battle WordPress this morning, it kept insisting on not letting me post a picture!
Macro Monday, fall edition! You know that fall is here and winter’s just around the corner when everything is covered in little ice crystals…
Our second frost of the year, hardly a killing frost, but cold enough to make you reach for a scarf and clean off the wood stove that sits all summer for a nice little fire.
Excuse me, Maks, but that’s not what the camera strap is used for…
Of the volunteer Bachelor Buttons that came up in the garden this year. It’s almost like two flowers in one, with the petals looking like a flower.
Ahhh, late getting my post up… This week’s is a little bit of a different Macro Monday than I usually do.
I found this nest in our raspberry patch about a week and a half ago when I was out picking. It’s a funny story, actually. The particular bush that the nest was in hangs down a lot over the wire and you have to pick it up to get all the berries underneath. So I was out picking and had already lifted the branches and picked all the low berries when I straightened up and there was a little nest with eggs nestled in the branches where the bush bent over the wire that had somehow survived!
The momma hen. She flies off to the post at the end row and nervously hops up and down while cussing anyone who comes to check on the nest, especially if the ever-present dogs are lurking.
The little hatchlings – they hatched a just a few days ago.
Challenge this week is summer. Summer means a lot of different things to different people, depending where you live. For us, it means putting up the year’s hay and growing the garden and preparing for winter.
Cutting hay one our home fields.
Some summer bugs…
Last load from a friend’s field.
And of course, you need a nice cool drink after all that hard work!
Frogs! Spring’s definitely here when the tadpoles start hatching and you see the occasional frog in the mud puddle, despite this decidedly spring-like weather that seems to be plaguing Oregon and Washington lately.
I didn’t just see one frog, but two!
A couple of weeks back when I was out at the barn doing my evening chores, I saw a brown and green frog in the puddle, but by the time I returned in a couple of minutes withe the camera, he was gone.
This one kept insisting on climbing up on my thumb, so I let it have its way…
Thinking no one can see him. Either this frog is oblivious, or that fly is pretty stupid.
Back in the blogging saddle after a somewhat long absence! I’m done with finals and into the second semester, so I should be back for a while… At least I hope so.
The Common Hazelnut, Corylus avellana.
Still some moisture in the ground, but not very much. Got down to 14ºF last night. Dogs were very happy to sleep inside for the night, could hardly yard them outside to do their business before bed. “Do we have to? Can’t we just come wake you up at 2 am, when we really have to go?”
I think that Nick was really glad for his padded stable blanket last night. I meant to go break the layer of ice that had no doubt formed in his bucket since doing my evening chores before going to bed, but I was so sleepy that I plumb forgot, so this is what his bucket looked like this morning.
The preferred weapon of choice for the occasion of ice chopping.
If you mock a weatherman for not being able to predict weather out of a wet paper bag enough times, then they predict a big storm – which of course you don’t believe them – that knocks the power out. I knew I should have just scheduled my Stills post Saturday night! And since I to do so, today will be a late SS/Macro Monday post.
Regular old post-growing moss.
Sunday Stills Challenge:
As it turns out, I did manage to find a horse to photograph… my own! Not that I was worried about finding any. =)
Just coming back from a ride. Nick was so patient and hardly moved a muscle while I snapped away and asked him to pose for me.
This is one of my favorites, I took it this summer right before I went for a ride. I just love the look on his face.
Since I never did get around to answering my comments on the last Macro post, I’ll just answer the question on this one.
“What the heck is that thing?” Well, it’s a Chinese Chestnut. Very prickly, but the nut is very sweet, and well worth scraping the bitter skin off. The sweetness of the nuts seems to vary tree to tree. The cows and Nick love to munch on the leaves when they can reach them.
My new shoes! The 2″ heel took a little getting used to…
Macro Monday time again! Food and trees with super wicked thorns make an interesting mix, but what the heck?
This is the common Hawthorn tree. Their berries turn the most beautiful shades of red and black as they get ripe. A little history: the fruit, called a haw is used to make jelly, jam, wine, syrups, and add flavor to brandy.
The plum/peach pie that Mom made yesterday.
Well, not literally, I mostly ride bareback. But that’s beside the point. I’m back in the blogging saddle for awhile. I can’t believe it’s been over a month since I was posting semi-regularly!
With one and a half hay fields left to finish, I should be posting pretty regularly until it’s time to go out and actually pick up all the bales and put them in the barn. With this triple-digit heat wave passing through for the next few days, it’s certainly good hay drying weather, but not so good for us humans! It’s stay in the shade all day and then come out at night like the deer and work.
Bull Thistle, Cirsium Vulgare
A new idea from Ed for those of us who are looking for another challenge to shoot. It’s a great idea, Ed! I’m looking forward to seeing what everybody as posted pictures of.
Dewy Green Arrow peas.
This guy looks like he’s had a rough time – I wonder how much the tear in his wing would affect his flight? I didn’t even notice the bumble bee on the other flower until I was cropping the picture!
This is straight out of the camera, despite the enhanced look…actually, all of them are SOOC. I love the color on this one.
![Strawberry field forewer [Explore 2023-05-30 #1]](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52938290739_54fc88d448_s.jpg "Strawberry field forewer [Explore 2023-05-30 #1]")
Trapper Creek Daughter 