Good Monday!

Every morning, we reach the barn before or during sun-up.  Every morning, Moonie comes to the fence to say hello.  

Then, he walks to the barn and waits in the doorway to his stall.

 He knows, each morning, that the routine is always the same:  

on goes the UV-blocking fly mask, and then breakfast is served.

Breakfast is definitely Moonie's favorite thing.  

Most of the time when you see photos of him, he is the tall, handsome, blonde behind the Foster Grants.  I thought you might like to see how his eye ended up looking after it healed.  It might give one a start if one wasn't expecting it, but I am getting used to his new look.

Although, I've got to say, every morning as he lowers his head so that I can put his mask over his ears (he's always very accommodating), I experience a tiny bit of sadness in the pit of my stomach.  I fasten the fly mask around his nose and give him a kiss on the nose and whisper "I'm so sorry" to him.  It's the same every morning... and probably always will be.  I know that we did the right thing, but I cannot help feeling sorry that things turned out as they did for Moonie.  The important thing, now, is... to make sure that his remaining eye is kept out of the sunlight.  Luckily, he's pretty good about keeping his mask on.

My sweet, handsome, gentle giant!  I think that the loss of his eye affects me more than it did him, at least emotionally.

We were lucky to have two sunny days this weekend.  

As I was cleaning the dry lot yesterday afternoon, Griz came wandering down through the snow to me. I know he love to ride on my shoulders when I am cleaning up manure, but with all of the snow on the ground it is much harder to lug the manure cart with a cat on my shoulders.  So, I perched him atop the fence post... 

and he followed me like a tight-rope artist as I traveled around the dry lot.

Finally, after weeks of cold, cloudy wash days... there was enough sunshine yesterday to dry my sheets, without them freezing on the line.  To me, there is nothing more delicious than fresh sheets that were dried outdoors.  

Saturday, though sunny, was frigid (so cold that the dogs had to wear coats)

... and was the perfect day for knitting in front of the fire.

I also took a little time to read through this pattern and cut out the pattern pieces.  I am awaiting the arrival of a piece of linen and then I will be sewing this duster.

I tried a new recipe this weekend and may live to regret it, as I am going to have to eat quite a few of these...

Thanks to Joyce at Octoberfarm Blog for the recipe.  Her recipe is for Swedish Cardamom Rolls and she has a great tutorial on how to twist and shape these.  I had no cardamom in the house, so I substituted cinnamon and then glazed them with a butter-cream drizzle instead.  I also added ground nuts for Hubbs (he's quite nutty!)   They are delicious as cinnamon rolls. (Thanks, Joyce!!!)