Friday, December 2, 2016

friday foto finish!! ii

Another Friday, another collection of the various photos that have accumulated on my phone. It's a little refreshing in some ways, right? After a couple days of writing out more detailed or dense posts, it's nice to just sit back and look at some pretty pictures, right?

And sure, we all have our own definitions of 'pretty' but I'm still riding high on this barn door vista kick lol. And I have LOVED seeing all of the versions you all have posted too!!

While the fall foliage is mostly gone now, I'm looking forward to how the view might transform come winter!

Ahh Fall, tho. It's definitely my favorite season - I just love all the colors! And apparently come by it naturally, as my mom and aunt are both big fans too and created this lovely Thanksgiving centerpiece out of leaves and sticks and old blossoms collected from my mom's home on the rural Eastern Shore.  

Or here's another pretty fall view - a dramatically lit oak (I think?) tree visible behind the restored-ruined walls of my friend's wedding venue.

And obviously, we can't discuss pretty over-long without landing on my favorite handsome bay, Mr Charlie Murray. In this pic he's sporting his freshly pulled mane. It's bad lighting tho.... and really, it hardly matters anyway bc despite yanking what amounted to an actual small mountain of hair out, he still has TONS of mane omg. It's been a couple weeks and yea... it's still not really all that obvious that he had the work done lol.

Anyway. Still talking about Charlie, but moving on.... Does anybody know how to teach a horse to paint? Charlie loves carrying things around and I have a sick sense of humor and fantasize about subsidizing my horsey habit by selling overpriced masterpieces on etsy or something.


Tho I guess we have to work on him hanging on to the thing long enough anyway lol....

Oh Charlie. So much to work on all the time. He's good tho. Lately we've been taking every opportunity we can to say hi to new dogs. Charlie's never spooked at dogs or anything... But he's given a couple of them fairly hard looks. And since dogs are ubiquitous around barns he's gotta get desensitized! 

Apparently he has to get desensitized to deer too. Ugh. Well. I guess that's unfair... it was dark out and the deer came out of nowhere. And Charlie did one of those startle-in-place spooks, then recovered perfectly and went on with his life.

Except he somehow managed to more or less crush my foot in the spook. Note the half-hoof-print on the side of the boot? Luckily the foot was only badly bruised and nothing worse... Hurt like a bitch tho. Thank god for solid footwear!! Actually.... there's a funny story with those boots too*... 

Oh but Charlie wasn't the only one of my pets to unceremoniously stomp on me lately!! My stupid fucking kitten (why do I have cats again, can somebody remind me?) did one of those stupid fucking kitten things and freaked out at nothing, jumping straight up off the couch, then running away as fast as possible.

Somehow in the process leaving the above paw print on my bicep. And yea that's all bruising around the scratches. How the F does a cat leave a paw print with the claw marks all in a line like that?!? Wtf. Ugh. 

Seriously these goddamn cats haha. Can you figure out which one is the asshole responsible for the claw marks? And which one is trying to pretend he's the good cat? lol

Hint: the gray one's the asshole. As evidenced in his above pose of "You will accept my grooming. Or I will choke a bitch out."

Cats, guys. Not even once.

Anyway, moving on from my sad little stories about mutilation at the hands paws hoofs weapons of mass destruction ... of my animals... Anyway. I've been so excited about Charlie's great attitude about traveling and going places and doing things that I'm starting to seriously dream about all the fun we could potentially have!!

Like when Allison posts about fox hunting and I start thinking that maybe Charlie and I will have to find a way to go up and join her!!! But then apparently I take it 18 steps too far (with also way too much time on my hands... how?) and photoshop bend MS Paint to my will to imagine what Charlie might look like out in the field!!

Because I can totally see the field hunter in him. Right?!? He's always (always**) got that look about him lol. Maybe one day!!

Anyway tho. Maybe I'm not the only one feeling particularly scatter brained right now, lol. Have you had anything random happen to you lately? (Hopefully not along the lines of being stampeded by your critters!)

* - Funny story about the boots: So I wrote a while back that my calves are wildly different sizes since breaking my leg. The formerly broken left leg is now bigger and a different shape, such that my tall boots don't fit as well (fucking BOO). The weird thing was.... my river boots were the opposite - the RIGHT boot was way too tight, whereas the left boot was fine. Further confusing matters, the left boot fit perfectly fine on the right leg (bc sometimes I put the wrong shoes on the wrong feet. Judge away y'all). This has literally been a giant mystery to me for WEEKS. how could this boot have shrunk like that? How could both of my legs be bigger than the other, depending on footwear??? Until. Finally. I realized. And thought to ask Brita whether she had noticed a strange discrepancy in her boots too..... lolz oops. Turns out we inadvertently swapped a boot somewhere along the way, so I ended up with one of her normal calf boots and she got one of my wides. Haha, at least that mystery has been solved! And I'll still be able to layer under my boots come winter!

** - Charlie ALWAYS looks like this. Austen had been wondering how I always get so many nice shots of him. Until she saw him at the show. And realized. Oh. He just always looks like that, huh. Like the above picture. Charlie stood exactly like that, stock still, expression unchanged, for at least three minutes. lol. 

40 comments:

  1. I guess I'm lucky to have big feet so I don't have to worry about people stealing my boot! That is too funny. Stinker also has a fondness for that pose. I call him the most majestic beastie.

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    1. Such a majestic beastie tho! They must look as tall as possible!!

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  2. I've had the same foot injury a few times. I don't think that horses understand 'feet'. Obviously your cat had to protect you from an inter dimensional demon that only he could see. Your injury was collateral damage to saving your life and you have no appreciation! (sorry that last part was written by my cat Chester...).

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    1. See you're more generous to my cat than I would be lol. Rather than acting as my brace hero trying to rescue me, I would see him more of the yellow belly lowlife would would trip me up so that demons would get me while he escaped lol ;)

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  3. I love the boot story cause i would be silly enough to do that! Cats ARE assholes (have learned to stay clear of my 11 year old cat who acts like a kitten every freaking day (True story never name your cat Peeves or he will act like a poltergeist). Love all the photos and ouch on the foot. Been there too but with not such a spectacular bruise. Remus is scared of..wait for it..CHICKENS. The barn we go to ride with Sally at has CHICKENS and my great hunking QH jumps into my lap everytime i am leading him down to the ring. I have gotten pretty agile about him missing my foot now but JEEZ. Looking forward to your tales in the hunt field (I have faith in ya!)

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    1. I mean... Chickens are kinda terrifying if you look closely at them lol. And yea the bruise was pretty nasty but mostly bc I think some minor vessel was damaged (which explains why the veins were all popping up too maybe? Idk it was gross lol)

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  4. My big horse stepped on my foot, more toward the toes, and it permanently discolored the skin. Nothing major, but a speckling of discoloration.

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    1. Ooh so strange!!! This bruise speckled too!! Not sure that it's permanent tho

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  5. Ugh, so sorry about your foot. I have a hoof mark on my stomach still from when I got trampled this summer. It's great...

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  6. OMG that boot story. BWHA! And the damn animals maiming us....I totally understand. I now don't always even realize when one of them has mauled me, oh that scratch? I don't even remember. That bruise? Odd, maybe I was abducted? SMH.

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    1. Ugh yea I hear ya about that... So many little scratches and bruises... Hard to not noticed tho when the animal itself literally jumps on top of me tho haha!

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  7. I'm absolutely dying about the boots hahahaha. Your photo posts are just as much fun as the text ones, because your captions are hilarious!

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    1. haha yay i'm glad you like the photo dump posts too bc i honestly have a lot of fun making them!!!! moar pictures always!!!!!

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  8. omg the boot story made me laugh. and sorry your animals are all beating you up.

    I have a scar on my boob from a cat. STILL. it involved snow falling off a roof and... yeah. don't do that.

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  9. Sounds like Charlie is a candidate for a mannequin challenge!

    My cat delighted me this week by spraining his paw immediately after we went to the vet, like within an hour of coming home. Fortunately, it was just swelling and nothing serious so my call to not drive BACK to the vet was validated. CATS MAN.

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    1. omg we should totally do the mannequin challenge with him!!!! omg. also tho, glad your cat is ok :(

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  10. Ahhh, when animals attack!

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    1. he's kinda surprisingly a huge drama queen lol

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  12. OMG the boots! I remember you mentioning that at Loch Moy :P So glad you figured it out! And both of those injuries hurt like heck. My cat maimed me once in my sleep. He was up by my head and went to walk down me, and when he stepped on my forehead I twitched, woke up and scared the shit out of him. He proceeded to dig in with all of his claws and take off down me. I still have scars from some of the punctures!

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    1. yea i'm embarrassed at how long it took me to figure out the boots thing.... i've just been blaming my weird legs or the boots being weird or something... but as is usually the case, the answer was much simpler after all.

      also tho omg that sounds like the worst way ever to wake up!

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  13. I hate it when they step on my feet!!

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  14. Lol that story about the boots is too funny!

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  15. I like the photo posts and I agree about the cats... they're jerks. Seriously, small jerks with soft, pretty, pretty fur. Here are mine (hard limit of two because I can only take so much fur-bearing assholery in my life): http://whichchick.tumblr.com/post/94993989732/cat-portraits-i-believe-in-attractive-cats

    If you get all motivated about field tripping (and I marvel at how you find the time), spring hunter pace season is only a few short months away... and most of the courses have go-arounds for anything you don't feel like attempting. (We had such a good time at HCIB that I'm like an enthusiast about these now.)

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    1. yep it's definitely on the agenda. we had hoped to get out this season but the timing hasn't proved great. for instance there was a great pace scheduled for last sunday that would have been totally perfect for charlie (2mile course, flat and jumps, can go multiple times) but all the friends i would have gone with were entered in that dressage show instead. so off to the dressage show we went too! perhaps you'll recall tho, isabel and i made it out to many paper chases etc and i have the full expectation that charlie will too!

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  16. Long time reader but first time commenting.

    Charlie always looks great because as my trainer says: horses that are built well and have great potential always look nice. They can't take a bad picture.

    :)

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  17. If you figure out how to get Charlie to paint, let me know. Eugene also has to put everything in his mouth so I feel like he'd be good at that too.

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  18. Dear Charlie, please teach Griffin your posing ways.

    I had a cat like the grey that acted the fool a lot. He's been rehomed due to various reasons, but his new momma reports he aggressively grooms his new brother and sister just like his old brother when he lived with me. He is/was affectionately known as The Shitten. ...and also Bathroom Troll because he always lived in the bathroom.

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  19. As a fairly recent puppy owner, I get the animal shenanigans. I blame breaking my elbow on her, and I slippd while holding her leash so consider her responsible for almost breaking my kneecaps. G damn animals!! Hope you're healing quickly. And that pretty pics of Charlie are helping cause man hes cute!

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  20. Can't you paint by putting paint on their noses and getting to smear it around on a canvas? They don't actually need a brush, do they?

    ....obviously will now be testing this out myself!

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  21. My broken toe from the summer still makes wearing certain shoes painful! Stomp wounds suck!

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  22. So sorry about the stomp. 1200 pounds of muscle powered by a brain the size of a walnut, as the vet that lived nextdoor to me when I was growing up used to say.

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