Happy Birthday?

I recently celebrated my annual aging event, and boy did the year pass with a BANG! 2 nights before the big day, I got a call from someone at the horse barn. 'You need to get out here and get your vet out here too. Your pony is stuck in the fence and bleeding!'  Enter PANICMODE! Fortunately Mr. Pony and I had been preparing to head out for dinner, so we were ready to go ASAP. Mr. P elected to drive, possibly because I was vibrating with repressed terror, and while he insists that he was speeding, I'm 100% certain that he was doing at least 10 under the speed limit. Grrr.

Fortunately, Copper extracted himself from the fence on his own, and by the time we got there, the lovely people at the barn had him tied up and were hosing off his leg.

{WARNING: EXPLICIT PONY INJURY PICTURES TO FOLLOW}

This is what we found when we arrived.

Pardon the blur- this was from my cell phone, and I was a bit shaken. Yes folks, that white bit in the middle is his BONE. The vet got there about 20 minutes later, and she looked him over and said 'Well, lets sew him up'.

Watching your pony get knocked out {drugs, not with a bat}, flopped on the ground, and stitched up is pretty traumatic. She put in 12-15 stitches total (I think- counting wasn't my strong point right then), and then we wrapped the leg up VERY well. 3.5 days later he is still rocking the same wrap- she wanted us to just wrap it up and leave it alone so it could heal.

Copper is now confined to the stall. He does not like this.

But that is what the little shit gets for ripping his leg open. I'm told it was self defense- he was getting picked on by another horse out in the pasture and misfired into the fence. So we had a long chat about running, not fighting, and if one must fight, one must first aim. He was uninterested in my views.

We'll be doing the big reveal tomorrow evening to see how he has healed thus far. Hopefully he is healing well- he so far hasn't shown any major lameness, which is amazing. Injuries on the legs can really mess with so many important walking things, and I'll be honest, I'd be devastated if this little guy was really broken!

We were very fortunate- you don't want something like this to happen to your baby, but if it must happen, then our situation is what you want. The people at the barn SAW the injury happen, and we had the vet out to him and he was stitched up within 2 hours. My barn elves had him tied up and were hosing his leg before I even got there, which kept down swelling {meaning the vet had something to stitch} and kept the wound clean {keeping down infection possibilities}. We have a nice clean stall to put him in so he'll stay safe, and there are lots of people who have offered to help out. Oh yeah, and my vet rocks!

Please keep your fingers crossed for us tomorrow- Copper and I are BOTH hoping for a speedy recovery! I told Copper that healing quickly would be a great late birthday present!!

Truth

photo source

So true:)

A bit of fun!

Mr. Pony and I spent some time in a city we enjoy (not Central Nowhere). The weather was beautiful, the flowers were fragrant, and the food was beyond words. We had a great time and celebrated my birthday (a week early), much to my delight. I mean, who wouldn't enjoy a gift like this burst of red?



Of this delicious medley for the eyes {and tongue}?

Eggs anyone?

Apparently Mr. P got starved prior to our lunch experience. The local foliage seemed like a good substitute for food. 

As if I don't already feel short enough...

And we found what looks like a haunted house.

 

But then we could wait no longer- my darling husband was faint from hunger. Any further delay would have been tragic. 

The hunter searches for prey {playing it cool and pretending he cares about the tea}.

Then the unwary victim wanders too close, and he pounces!

And again. 

 

And once again.

Until he has eaten his fill.


And then we lumber away, ready to return another day for another round of photo and food fun. Huzzah!

Project 365

As if I haven't set myself out for enough projects right now, I have decided to add one more to my platter {yup, we are beyond plate size now}.

Project 365 is successfully forcing me to get some good hands-on time with my camera. If you are bored, check out my calendar. I haven't taken a great picture everyday, but at least it gets me messing with the precious' settings:).

Some highlights include:

Green thumbs- help!!

My thumbs are not green. Or even yellow-ish. More of a dull gray- the color of the dead cactus I threw away once after forgetting to water it. For 3 months.

*Oops*

But as a homeowner, I'd like to make the exterior of our home look nice. I'm not wanting to compete with Versailles

{my house would sink into the pond, in any case}

but the exterior of our home could use a facelift. The previous owners let a couple of the bushes in the front struggle, so we have a tiny bush and a dead one. Charming!

So I want to haul the dead critters out and plant something glorious. Maybe one of these, with a few smaller bushes around the side of the house (that huge blank wall you see).

photo source

And I want to put this stuff somewhere in the yard. Who knows where.

 photo source

Maybe we'll start small, get the pretty bush put in and then I can add randomly occurring grasses to the yard. Hopefully Chowder won't eat all this stuff!

Spring is here!!

Vivid flowers, sunny skies and... shedding ponies. Even without the weather I could tell you spring is here by the clouds of pink horse hair Copper keeps emitting. Yes, I said pink- he may look chestnut in the sun, but once that hair falls off it looks pastel pink. It makes it quite hard for him to hold his head high around the other horses- he tries to shrug off their mockery

but deep down inside, he hurts.

So I got him some flowers and that cheered him right up!

I guess even ponies need floral encouragement sometimes!

Mmm....

The Pony family eats some darn good eats. A few weeks ago Mr. Pony made a fabulous lemon tart {yes, that is candied lemon peel and homemade whipped cream you see on top- be jealous}.

Then I made knock-off Samoa Girl Scout cookies (Caramel Delights for you young 'uns) using this recipe and they were FABULOUS. We ate the entire pan of bars in less than 3 days {Mr. Pony- "But I don't like coconut. Whaaaa"}. We didn't put any chocolate on the bottom- just an extra heavy drizzle on top and it worked out well {i.e. we were lazy}.

 photo source

Then tonight, I decided to surprise Mr. Pony. You see, he went gallivanting to the frozen North. Without me. To Chicago. One of my favorite U.S. cities. {runs away crying} I'm not bitter.

 photo source

So to make sure that he never, ever again chooses to leave me behind while he goes to visit the Windy City {and gorges on fabulous noms that are out of my reach}, I'm schmoozing him with madeleines. To be exact, I made a lemon-glazed madeleine recipe from a fabulous chef David Lebovitz {he lives in Paris now. *le sigh*}.

Ok, so the truth is I've owed these cookies to Mr. Pony for the last several months. Since October. Ok, 6 months. High time to give him a mini taste of Paris. And to make sure that he takes me there again as well.

Some might say that I'm actually rewarding him for having been gone, but I prefer my way of thinking. Seriously- this way I get cookies. Duh. To all you naysayers, here- have a cookie!