Grab a Cuppa... Let's Catch Up!

Somewhere hidden amongst the days that have passed since we last chatted, October made its exit and November arrived.  Autumn's colors slipped away, replaced by the rich browns that accompany the waning of this season.  Thankfully, the sunrises and sunsets give us lovely colors.  And still, the unseasonably warm weather hangs on.  Weirdly.

It's been a minute (or two, or ten, or...) since we last chatted.  I am sorry for the abruptness with which I left.  Unforeseen circumstances prevailed, making blogging nearly impossible.  To all of you who reached out to check on us... thank you.  We are fine - good, actually.  And no, we did not have a breakdown in the new subscription service.  Blogging life should return to normal beginning with this post.

What I have learned as a creative is... that it takes a certain amount of energy to turn inspiration into a tangible medium for others to (hopefully) enjoy.  Given the best of circumstances, expressing myself comes easy.  There are times, however, when life gets in the way and my energy is consumed in other matters... leaving no creative bandwidth available for writing.  The past two weeks took my energy and attention in other, unanticipated directions.  I apologize for the lack of explanation and sudden disappearance. 

Today, we pick up where we left off - as good friends do.  That's the thing about friendship... it withstands time and separation.

 Now, more than ever, we all need a place to celebrate the goodness of life and a reminder that no matter what our ideals and beliefs may be... we are more alike than we are different. If we concentrate on grounding ourselves in love and kindness - and then passing it on to others, perhaps we can create a ripple of compassion. Perhaps one day that ripple will grow into a wave that washes across all of humanity and our precious earth.  Every deluge starts with a single drop.  Even a teardrop has the potential to bring life to a barren spot.

And speaking of drops... until yesterday, we had not had a single drop of rain in almost a month.  There have been a few wildfires in our area, which are not a typical occurrence.   Until this past weekend, the days had also been unseasonably warm.

Our garden is completely confused.  Plants that had previously dried up and dropped their seed, have germinated again.  I have a garden box filled with lovely cilantro - 

and a second generation of chamomile may soon flower if this weather continues.

Everything else in the garden (except the kale) was hit by frost.  I am working on cleaning out dead plant matter - leaving behind all flowers with seed heads for the birds to eat.

The animals are all doing well.  We had a farrier visit last week.  The boys (Moonie and Red) were both their usual cooperative selves.

You might notice that Moonie had a little restyling of his mane since you last saw him.  During grazing last week, he had a roll in some burdock - resulting in a large tangled mess in his mane.  I tried to pick the burrs out by hand, but was unable.  Hence, the radical (and not very even) haircut.  No worries, it will be grown back in by summer.

The donkey girls are doing well.  

They were up to their usual shenanigans while the farrier worked on their hoofs.  

"Not helpful, Chloe!"

I had to keep the dogs with me to prevent their intrusive thievery - they love to steal the trimmed pieces of hoof... sometimes right off of the hoof as the farrier works!

All of the young hens (this summer's chicklets) have begun to lay- 

giving us a lovely daily array of deep brown, peach, and green/blue eggs.

 We had guests for the weekend and took a hike on a large river island, on some State Game Lands.  

Realizing, after our arrival, that it was hunting season (small game, I think) we stayed out in the open spaces, where we saw no hunters.

 Our rivers are quite low right now in our current drought situation, but beautiful, nonetheless.  As I walked over this bridge,

I stopped to catch a few photos of the water.

There's something so tranquil and calming about water, isn't there?  I could have sat on that bridge and watched the water flow over rocks for hours.

It's good to be back chatting with you again.  What's happening in your world?