Summer Jewels

Here are just a few random photos of what makes summer in New Mexico so much fun.

A Roadrunner nesting in our cottonwood tree – maybe Simone who rested in our stall fans all one winter?

 
One of our resident Antelope Squirrels looking for sunflower seeds in our courtyard.

Summer flowers.
 



 
The final jewel is in our cactus bed.  Shortly after we moved in 6 years ago we went out into the sage and transplanted some Prickly Pear cactus and a small piece of a Cholla cactus.  The Prickly Pears have bloomed almost from the beginning.

The Cholla cactus (the tall cactus in the middle) hasn’t bloomed until this year.

Summer in New Mexico is good.

Monday Video – Horses and Art

Two things I love – horses and art – are combined in this unique video.

Enjoy.

Sunday Reflections – Loyalty

O Lord, God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Israel, keep this desire in the hearts of your people forever, and keep their hearts loyal to you.  (1 Chronicles 29:18-19)

Loyal: 1. faithful to one's sovereign, government, or state: a loyal subject. 2. faithful to one's oath, commitments, or obligations: to be loyal to a vow. 3. faithful to any leader, party, or cause, or to any person or thing conceived as deserving fidelity: a loyal friend. 4. characterized by or showing faithfulness to commitments,vows, allegiance, obligations, etc.: loyal conduct.

I was thinking about what it means to be loyal – to someone or something.  From the dictionary definitions above, “faithfulness” has a lot to do with loyalty.

But, where does loyalty end?  Does it have an end?  Would/should I be loyal to someone with whom I disagree?  Would/should I be loyal to someone who does something that might be illegal/immoral?

A dog is a good example of a loyal companion, but I have to admit most dogs will still be loyal to someone even if they do something despicable.  Is that a good example of loyalty?

Sir Thomas More is one of my heroes.  An important counselor to Henry VIII of England, he was tried and executed for treason by beheading in1535 for denying that the king was the Supreme Head of the Church of England, a title the king had been given by the Act of Supremacy of 1534. More was in prison in the Tower of London since 1534 for his refusal to take the oath required by the First Succession Act, because the act disparaged the power of the Pope.  Henry used this act to create the Church of England and enable him to marry Anne Boleyn even though he was still married to Catherine and the Catholic Church would not grant him a divorce.

Even though the King ordered him to be executed, Sir Thomas More never lost his loyalty to the king.  Even until his death, he remained loyal.

That’s loyalty in it’s finest form – total disagreement on a life and death and matter, but still loyal.  I believe More was able to remain loyal because the king did not deceive him, nor lie to him.

Is it possible to remain loyal to someone with whom you disagree – yes.  Is it possible to remain loyal to someone who is not perfect, who makes mistakes? Absolutely.

I would find it hard to be loyal to someone who deceives me or lies to me, but beyond that, loyalty is a gift we can give to those who often don’t deserve it.

As I am given the gift of grace when I don’t deserve it.

(Happy Father’s Day!)

Catch Up

Today’s post is a catch up of the past few days when I didn’t take the time to post.  I could say that we were pretty busy, which was true, but that’s just an excuse.

On Wednesday, we took a nice ride in the area North of our house.  One reason we wanted to go that way is they are building a house in that area and the last time we walked the horses through there, Sugar spooked.  This time I rode her past the house, with lots of workmen there doing all kinds of things.  Sugar was very aware of their presence, but she didn’t spook and I was proud of her.

Thursday, we worked again out at Galloping Grace Youth Ranch.  It wasn’t our normal day, but they had about 30 Girl Scouts coming out and we agreed to help out.  It was a lot of fun and we had several young girls (about 9 years old) who were pretty good riders.  The best was a girl named Ava.  I asked her if she was named after anyone, but she said no.  As old as I am, I first thought of Ava Gardner.  She’s a famous actress from the 40’s and 50’s for you young pups out there.

Ava had never been on a horse before, but she was very confident in a good way, naturally confident.  She had great posture and great, natural balance.  Her seat was almost perfect.  After leading her around for a few minutes and showing her how to use the reins, she took off with Seabiscuit like she had been riding all her life.  And, old Seabiscuit is not an easy horse to ride unless he senses a good rider on his back, which he did with her.  It was a joy to watch.

Thursday night, we went to see the Isotopes play the Omaha Royals.  I love Isotope Park.  It’s well designed, no bad seats anywhere.  It’s comfortable and the food is really good and great variety.  You can even get Bananas Foster if you want.  But you can’t beat a good hot dog (Hebrew National) with sauerkraut, onions and lots of mustard.  The Isotopes lost 15 to 12 in 11 innings, but it was a fun game to watch.  We left long before the game was over, bedtime you know, but we listened to the game on the radio on the way home and in bed after we got there.  It reminded me of the time when I was a kid growing up in Nashville, Tennessee and I used to listen to radio broadcasts of the St. Louis Cardinals games.

Friday morning we worked with the horses in our back yard.  We’re continuing our spooking training.  In the round pen, one of us would stand in the center and swing an item – saddle blanket, plastic sack, nerf noodle, blue tarp, hula hoop – around and over our heads.  The other would ride their horse around, away from and toward the movement.  Both horses did pretty well.

Today, Saturday, is a rest day.  We’re taking it easy.  I’ll watch the College World Series later today and we’ll both do some reading.  Not a bad way to spend the day.

We’re Home

We’re home and had a great time with our kids and granddaughter.  We’re catching up here, both on rest and some things we need to do.  So, posting will be slight for a day or two.

Good to be home.

Last Day of Our Steamboat Springs Trip

We left Steamboat Springs on Sunday morning and drove up to Fish Creek Falls just outside of the town.

 

Then we drove home, keeping our eyes open for more moose.  However, we didn’t really expect to see any and we were happy with the three moose on the way up to Steamboat Springs.

Boy, were we surprised.  First this one, a cow…

Then this bull…

And if that wasn’t enough, we ran across a clearing where there were four moose – these three bulls…
 

 
… and a cow laying down behind the bushes…

We would have been happy to see just one moose, but we wound up seeing a total of nine.

On the way home, we stopped at a campgrounds to use their restrooms and Juliet found a puddle to play in.

Here are some more pictures from earlier.

First, on Thursday night after we arrived, Betty gave Juliet a robe that I had brought from Japan (while I was in the Navy) for Wade Daniel when he was Juliet’s age.

On Saturday, we went to a hot springs in the morning, but it started raining in the afternoon and rained the rest of the day.  That evening, after supper, we went back to our room and Juliet and I had some fun playing together.
 

All in all, our trip to Steamboat Springs was great.

Drive to Steamboat Springs

On our drive to Steamboat Springs we went through an area where it’s possible to sometimes see moose.  Sure enough, in the trees… if you look close you can see a small hoof in the lower right hand of the picture…

Not long after this she stuck her head out of the trees to cross the road (why does the moose cross the road?)…
 
Then she starts across…



 

Then as we were driving down the road, Marie saw this young bull eating in the marsh… his horns are pretty new and the velvet covering is still on them…


We got to Steamboat Springs and had dinner at Beaujo’s, a great, Colorado pizza place…

It was a good first day for our trip.