Carbon Copy

Yesterday was a carbon copy of the past several days (weather-wise) - 
beautiful sunrise (worth getting out of bed for) with a few hours of spotty sunshine -

 followed by clouds the rest of the day... lots and lots of grey.

Jack loaded up the truck and we took all of our recycling 30 minutes north to the nearest recycling center.  It's a process, I've got to admit.  But... our local refuse company has stopped their recycling services.  As a result, we had to search for a place to take ours.  I worry that with no pickup service locally, that people might be just throwing away their recyclables, or even worse... burning them and releasing harmful chemicals into the air.  I have been heartened, of late, to see that more and more stores have stopped using plastic bags for their merchandise.  It feels like baby steps, when I wish we would just run with it!

We put the equines in the front pasture for the morning.  There's very sparse grass there - but we supplement with hay.  This gives us the ability to allow them more freedom and pasture time - knowing that they will not consume too many calories in an extended stay.  When we arrived home, they all came running back to the barn (forgetting that I had also given them their yummy chow earlier while they were still in the pasture.)

After bringing the horses back in, I headed home for some indoor activities.  I spent a little time in front of the fire, knitting, with my advisor looking on...

If I sit down or lie down, Ivy insists on being on top of me... unless my wool knitting bag is handy, then she opts for the warmth of wool.

It had been many months since I had the time to pick up my paintbrushes, so I found a photograph of an opossum online, sketched it, and painted it, yesterday afternoon.  I kind of like it... it's ok.   Most importantly, I had fun doing it!

 The thing is... I love opossums.  Some find them to be ugly, with their mouths full of sharp pointy teeth, their naked rat-like tail, and their beady little eyes.  And while I don't want them anywhere near the barn... (they carry nasty diseases that horses can get), I don't mind them out in the wild.  They perform all sorts of beneficial tasks such as eating ticks, and keeping the vermin (mice and rats) population down.  They are resistant to snake venom, so they also eat venomous snakes!  And... they are the only species of marsupial in North America - keeping her young safe in her pouch for 50 days after birth.  Once the young reach 3-4 inches in length, they leave the pouch and ride around on their mother's back.  Now what's not to love about all of that!