Rocky meets a new friend, maybe

It was Rocky's turn to walk down to the stables, in the morning, before it got too hot. But our old fellow wears a black fur coat so he gets hot pretty quickly. He always looks forward to this part of our route because there is tall grass growing next to the fence and is usually nice and wet.

The Bloomington walking path is all the way to the left in this picture.


Happiness is a good roll in wet grass!


Still panting but much better!


But - wait a minute...are those big dogs? Will they treat me better than Mini does?


One of the big dogs is interested in Rocky, too!




Well, maybe another day Rocky. Now that you know the big dogs are there I wonder if you will look for them on your next walk! But...if you are going to run with the tall dogs........

"No hour of life is wasted that is spent in the saddle" - Winston Churchill

My friends Deb and George volunteer to lead trail rides on Sundays at Schooner Valley Stables in Nashville, IN. http://www.schoonervalleystables.com/index.html

I took a picture off of their website to show Deb and her most favorite friends!


"Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people." ~W.C. Fields

Patty, her daughter Mary, and I had the good luck to be able to go on a trail ride with Deb today. A wonderful morning, I got to smell horses, feed them carrots, groom them and scoop some horse poop. Does it get any better than that?!

The quiet before the grooming and saddling


Our lead wrangler, Deb


"Feeling down? Saddle up." ~Author Unknown

Romeo - the kind one that let me bounce around on him for an hour or so.


"When you're young and you fall off a horse, you may break something. When you're my age, you splatter." ~Roy Rogers

Your happy blogger getting ready to saddle Romeo....now....how do you do that again? And what was that about 'splatter'?


"One reason why birds and horses are happy is because they are not trying to impress other birds and horses." ~Dale Carnegie

This is Zeus...Kevin is getting ready to groom him. Zeus is very cool.


Why is Zeus cool? He has blue eyes! Both of them! No - they aren't 'milk eyes' (as we might call them in Greene County), he can see just fine. And he can see carrots really well.


Saddling up and getting ready to ride!




"In riding a horse we borrow freedom." ~Helen Thomson



"There is just as much horse sense as ever, but the horses have most of it. ~Author Unknown




And we're on our way through Yellowwood State Forest.


"There's nothing so good for the inside of a man as the outside of a horse." - Ronald Reagan

Deb makes a stop to make sure all saddles are well cinched.


Me 'n Romeo!


"The world is best viewed through the ears of a horse." ~Author Unknown

Patty and Mary!


Over all too soon, back to the barn...


And a well deserved slurp of water for the horses.


"Life is short. Hug your horse."

Deb and her remuda take a rest and get ready for the next round of greenhorns!

Thank you, Deb! It was wonderful!

"A dog may be man's best friend, but the horse wrote history." ~Author Unknown

Critter Condos!

Thank goodness the weather is getting much better, Mini went on a 2 1/2 mile hike yesterday.


We walked all the way down to the 'Canyon'



If I were a critter I would live here! Good old Bedford Limestone making lots of little places to hide, or build a nest, a spot to peep out at the passersby!
Many possibilities here...


This looks like a nice spot but it appears that it is already occupied since the front porch is nicely swept.


This one looks very nice. Cozy.


But I think I found the best one - obviously high ceilings, a nicely cleared path in and out....might be fun to slide down...


And it is in a nice neighborhood!

The artist Herself....and her wonder dog Ellie!

A few last pictures of my weekend in Chicago....Cecily is the artist behind the Into Bhutan exhibit. The morning I left she thought it would be nice to send some daffodils to my mother. Cecily and the wonder dog, Ellie, went out to pick the flowers.


A very nice picture of Cecily. Since she is almost always the photographer I don't think we have near enough pictures of her so here are a few more!


Every dog needs a girl!


Ellie's 'spot'! A good view of everything with her back to the wall...2 escape routes...drowsing in the sun. Doesn't get much better than that.


Awwwww.......

Bhutan - Land of the Thunder Dragon

April 15 6-9 PM EXHIBIT OPENING
April 29 7-9 PM BHUTANESE FEATURE FILM: Travelers and Magicians
April 30 10-11 AM YOGA UNDER THE PRAYER FLAGS
May 6 7-9 PM DHARMA LECTURE, Russell Elllis
May 7 1-3 PM BEADING DEMONSTRATION, Russell Elllis
May 14 10-11 AM YOGA UNDER THE PRAYER FLAGS
May 14 12-3 PM YOUR GUIDE TO BHUTAN: Native Phurba Phurba presents


I spent a wonderful weekend in Chicago visiting with Steve and Cecily. Some of you know that Cecily is a Kripalu Yoga teacher and has conducted Yoga tours to Bhutan along with Steve. You can see more about that at the website she and the tour guide have developed:

http://bhutanyogatours.com/yoga

I attended the 2nd weekend of her 4 week 'Into Bhutan' art exhibit at the Union Street Gallery:


Just on the chance you are interested - the information on the exhibit is posted on the gallery website:
http://www.unionstreetgallery.org/IntoBhutan2011.htm

"An exhibit of photographs and traditional arts from the kingdom of Bhutan, including painting, weaving, embroidery, carving, jewelry, native clothing and traditional music"

It was full of the photographs taken by Cecily, Steve, and the others who have been on the tours. Traditional clothing for men and women, a yak hair rope, art, the rug pictured at the beginning of this post belongs to Steve and Cec and was made in Bhutan.
Very nicely done, very well lit and spacious, it was a delight to wander around.

During the exhibit Cecily will be teaching her Saturday Yoga class under the prayer flags at the gallery.





and my favorite




A lot of hard work obviously went into the production of this exhibit. I especiallly enjoyed the comments and questions of the group of people who were present for the movie on Friday night. Yoga Under the Prayer Flags Saturday morning was wonderful - thank you, Cecily!