we shall ride

Or at least, I shall ride. The William doesn't ride horseback, and even if he did, I can't imagine the stable would want a strange dog near their horses. He will have to content himself with admiring them from a distance. So, I guess that's the 'royal we' in the title. How appropriate. The thought of riding soon makes me feel quite regal.

I knew there was a large state-owned recreation area not far from here, one that covered almost 5,000 acres. I'd heard that it had trails and an equestrian campground. I never knew that it also had a riding stable! As you'd expect, I'm thrilled.

No, of course riding a stable horse isn't like riding your own horse. How could it be? You're strangers; there's no bond of trust and understanding between you. Also, stable horses are accustomed to inexperienced riders, so they've learned to ignore the shifts in position that would be signals from a knowledgeable rider. I expect they'd go mad if they didn't!

It doesn't matter. I haven't owned a horse in decades, and it's unlikely that I ever will again. I'll take my pleasure as I find it, and enjoy an hour in the woods and fields on a rented mount.

It may be sooner than you'd think! This has been a surprisingly warm winter, and the weather is softening already. I expect that four weeks from now, I'll be quite ready to hitch up the trailer and head for the campground. And ride while I'm there, too.

Roll on, spring!

first snowflake sphere

Since I was feeling too ragged to travel, I decided to do a little quilling. I've been wanting to make something three-dimensional with quilled snowflakes. I ended up making my first snowflake sphere!


It isn't perfect, but I'm really excited about it. I shaped the pieces on a foam mold as I made them, so that each one would have the necessary curve. Then I assembled the larger pieces, and made sure the glue had at least 8 hours to set. Actually, the thing that makes this an experiment rather than a completed sphere is that I underestimated how much reinforcement a nine-inch sphere needed as I was building, so this sphere is a bit too flexible. If I hung it, I think it would sag over time. The next one will be completely rigid.

And now that I have that figured out . . . oh, my, more possibilities! I'm thinking of quilled dragon wings . . .

William's dilemma

My sister saved a big soup bone for William yesterday. We knew he would love it. He prefers his bones cooked; I've even seen him walk away from a raw bone. Fussy, fussy!

We were right! He wouldn’t let it out of his mouth, even to go outdoors. Every night shortly after dark, he goes out; when he comes in, he gets his very yummy supplement. He had a really hard time leaving the bone behind when he went out, and grabbed it again as he walked through the door.

There was no supplement waiting for him! I thought I'd wait until he was done enjoying the bone. He was shocked! What a dilemma! He walked around holding the bone and crying, wanting both at once.   

Life is hard when you’re a dog!