I Found a Little Piggy!

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I was pulling weeds out in my gardens and way under one of the old bushes in the back, I saw something half buried. When I dug it out, it was this little cement pig!!!

He (or she!) was coated with mud as pigs should be I guess. I hosed him (or her) off and shall find a place in the open garden this little piggy!!!

It was my surprise of the day!

Shirley

It's Always Something!

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Guess who??

Yep . . . . it's Echo with an abscess in his left front hoof.

Ouch!

That means soaking in warm epson salts for 20 minutes twice a day!!!

He got almost immediate relief after the farrier came and with the first soaking.

Doesn't he look forlorn!!!! Actually he was dozing!

Always something with horses!

(Sorry about photo quality; they are all cell phone pictures)

Shirley

Struck by Lightning!!

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That's right, Tuesday night we had a big electrical storm with lots of lightning. One of the huge flashes sounded like a bomb came through my bathroom window. The lights went out for just a few seconds but the damage was done!!

I am very thankful that there was no fire or no trees hit that could've fallen on my house. All my damage was that it botched up several electrical things.

I lost my DirecTV DVR box

(that meant no TV)

My routers for my wireless connection and my land phones

(So, no internet or land phones till yesterday)

A TV upstairs

And three receptacles in the kitchen!!

It's funny the different things it messed up in various places in the house!

Thank goodness for my iPhone. It was my only connection to the outside world!!!

All the "fix-it guys" came yesterday and everything is all up and running again.

It cost me an electrician fee and a new TV for the bedroom.

I consider myself very lucky!!

Shirley

Satire is Getting Bored

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Satire is not liking this "stall rest" business!!

He has an injured right front suspensory ligament. So that means 3-4 months stall rest and only limited walking on a lead. He can have no uncontrolled movement.

So all summer, he can't run with the other horses, he's not even allowed to trot.

We are at the barn everyday so we are finding things to occupy his mind so he doesn't just stand in his stall and get depressed.

When we're there, we let him walk around the barn. He's getting into more and more things the more bored he gets!!

Here, he's discovered my barn bag with lots of goodies.

Oops, there goes the bag of carrots and apples.

Yep, there's more in there like Winnies Cookies!

He found my granola bars. Notice he's turned my whole bag upside down.

Here I'm sitting down trying to eat my Oats 'N Honey Bar.

Satire LOVES them!

I share with him. He's going to be soooooo spoiled!!!

Back off there boy!!

When we walk him out to the pasture to graze I like to take him among our herd so he feels he's still part of it.

Satire has gained back every bit of weight after his surgery last fall. He is a perfect weight!!

In fact he looks the best of our horses weight wise and he's 33 years old!!

Shirley

First Day of Summer

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I'm linking with a southern day dreamer for "Outdoor Wednesday" for this post:

http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/

I have been lax on my blogging this past week! I'm home today and thought I might get something done outside but when I went out, it is hot and muggy and buggy! I did manage some photos.

We've had A LOT of rain this spring so my furniture on the deck remains minimal and turned over so it doesn't get soaked quite as bad. The showers come up really fast.

Here is a sad note. This is my vegetable garden gone to weed. The man that rototills for me never came after 3 phone calls and now it is mostly too late to plant.

I could hand dig one row for some beans I guess. But not today!!

In my front garden my hydrangea is blooming.

In fact, everything is so lush it's like the tropics out here.

Of course the weeds take off too!

This is creeping thyme.

A clematis growing up some forsythia branches.

Well, peeking out of the weeds in my once pristine herb garden the lavender still is there!

Well, I hear thunder again so probably another down pour is on the way.

Shirley

A Girl and Her Horse

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My daughter and her horse Satire have something extra special. This weekend a friend of Michele's shot this video/slide show for Michele. It shows the strong connection the two of them have.

Kristi Gay is a photographer who comes from Indiana to be a second shooter when Michele does wedding photography. She stayed an extra few hours on Sunday because she wanted to do this for Michele

Thank you Kristi.

Video and photography by Kristi Gay

(If you click on the address right below the picture window, it will show a bigger version of the movie.) (Turn off my blog music as this has it's own.)

Michele & Satire: Fusion photo/video slideshow from Kristi Gay on Vimeo.

Bella Vita Studios
bellavitastudios.com
bellavitastudios@gmail.com
260-440-3889 studio/office
260-438-7246 cell

Pound Cake

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Classic Pound Cake

This is the first thing I've made with my new KitchenAid mixer.

Martha made this the other day on "Martha Bakes"

I let the eggs and butter come to room temperature as directed.

Creamed the butter

Added the sugar a little at a time.

Cracked 8 eggs and added them one at a time.

Double sifted flour with salt and baking powder.

Added the flour, milk and vanilla.

Makes two large loaves. Into the oven (325) they go for 1 1/2 hours.

Came out beautifully except one ran over a little and made a mess in my oven.

Mine came out a little course. I think I mixed it too long after adding the dry ingredients. Martha warns you not to do that! Sorry Martha!

It tastes good though.

I didn't have any blueberries or strawberries so I just drizzled some homemade strawberry jam over a piece. Yummmm.

I love how the mixer works and that you don't have to keep scraping the sides as it mixes.

It's a powerful big thing!!!!

I'm linking this post with the blog parties below:

http://www.makeaheadmealsforbusymoms.com/

http://www.blessedwithgrace.net/

http://ourjourneytoasimplerlife.blogspot.com/

http://pinchofthisthatandtheother.blogspot.com/

Shirley

Best Kind of Blues

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http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/

I'm linking with Smiling Sally for "Blue Monday".

Today as I was wandering around looking at all the things I have to do in the gardens, I spotted this lavender poking through all the weeds in my overgrown herb garden. I really should clean that all out in there and renew that garden!

I peeked in my blue bird house to see if anyone had taken over after I threw out the wren nest.

YES, it's a bluebird nest and it has one egg in it so far.

I sat down behind some brush and waited to see any activity.

I didn't have to wait long before papa bluebird appeared.

Isn't this just the best kind of news on a "Blue Monday"!!

Shirley

The Other Day

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A couple days ago I just decided to stay home and fiddle around my house. It was too hot to do anything outside.

I'm showing you my dining room table like it is normally when I'm not doing a tablescape. I like the simple clean colonial look.

I had finished the last brownie a couple days before and I had a NEED for chocolate chip cookies! And quick!

This is what I use now most of the time if I just want a small batch.

They are the most like my homemade ones and I can have a cookie in about 20 minutes, warm!!!!

It makes about this many plus 4 that I had already eaten.

I finally hung my FR curtains! I got them at Target when my sister was here. I don't know why we didn't hang them then but now they're up and it softens the room a lot. I just wish I didn't have that brown leather furniture!! My inspiration room, when I picked this yellow color had all light or white slipcovered furniture and it looked so cool!

(Please try to ignore my TV stand! I am still waiting for the white media cabinet I want to get

RE-STOCKED at OVERSTOCK!)

Well, I know this was sort of a post about nothing but most days are like that you know!

And that's OK with me!

Shirley