Pony Penning Fever

I've already captured and released (and a medical check-up) another sparrow this morning.  Lovey brought the youngster in and let it go in the clothes hamper (it doesn't have a lid).  I was able to capture it inside a book bag, where it was trying to escape Lovey; the bird was unharmed, so I turned it loose in the front of the building.  That's six birds in three days - either the sparrows are getting slower (or younger?), or the kits are perfecting their catching skills.
    I called my friend Mary at our agreed time on Friday afternoon, but missed her.  I've called back multiple times, but still receive no answer.  I hope she's OK.   I called and left a message for my friend Carolyn in Vero Beach on Saturday, and she called me back yesterday morning, so we had a wonderful chat.  I spoke with my friend, Michele, in Illinois on both Saturday and Sunday evening...  I feel like my ear is a suction cup attached to the phone this morning.  And I go to Maggie May's this morning for 10 days...
  The Antares re-supply rocket launch from Wallop's Island to the International Space Station flew through the skies yesterday afternoon, stampeding a herd of Angus cattle on a farm in Atlantic, Virginia.  WBOC, the local ABC station from Salisbury, Maryland has an interesting video of the launch and stampede.  It was filmed by Jay Diem, who takes incredible photos of Chincoteague's annual Pony Penning for the Salisbury Daily Times newspaper.
    ...  Of course I led the blog back to Chincoteague and Pony Penning!  It's like a fever that I won't be able to be cured from until the first week of August...
     If you're still interested in articles and videos regarding Chincoteague, I have a few to recommend:

http://fathomaway.com/guides/usa/us-south/itineraries/what-to-do-in-chincoteague-virginia/
(a nice little article, with photos, that mentions Captain Barry)

http://www.hrtv.com/videos/inside-information-ponies-of-chincoteague/
(an HRTV presentation, including interviews with Chincoteaguers)

And there is always both the Chincoteague website and the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company site:
http://www.chincoteague.com/

http://www.cvfc3.com/

Chincoteague Pony Swim   -  27 July 2011

A VERY Old House

OK, I've walked the Rs, met with Kristin about Sasquatch and Tugger, voted, read my e-mail, and looked at the news... I'm ready to go back to bed today. Neddy and Lovey are running in and out; it's 83 degrees with 30% humidity, the sun is shining, and I can see a glider soaring above the farmland to the east. Joel, Nancy and Max are wonderful people; when they returned from their trip to Europe, they brought me a selection of cards with the paintings of Claude Monet on them, a beautiful photograph book of the Cotswolds, and an intriguing set of "Endless Landscape" cards. With the two sets of nesting cats that were purchased for me in Russia, by the Aussie dogs' owners, I am acquiring quite a collection!
I am planning on washing the apartment curtains this afternoon, and hoping that after hanging for nearly 5 years with me, they won't shred or fall to pieces in the washing machine. In a way, I prefer vertical blinds, which most of the other apartments now have, but I also like the fact that these curtains have a rubber insulated lining that helps keep the cold out in the winter, and the sun's full heat out on summer mornings. As usual, I'm torn between the two...
And, near Scarborough, in North Yorkshire, England, the remains of a 10,500 year-old house/hut have been discovered. For more information on this discovery, visit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-10929343

Cold, cold, cold....

Normally the cold weather we experience in Boulder does not bother me - since we lack the humidity that I grew up with, I usually find the winter weather in Colorado invigorating. If I were just in my apartment, that would still be the case; however, I am pet-sitting at my sister's and her heat won't turn on. It's currently 16 degrees outside, with a wind chill of 0. There is 4 inches of crisp, powdery snow on the ground and we expect 3 to 4 more inches by midnight. Oh, boy! When I left Kathy's an hour ago, it was 50 degrees inside her house - and that was with the oven on and one teeny, tiny space heater running on high. I shut both of them off before bringing the girls, Suki & Boo, over to my tiny apartment. I don't want the pipes to freeze or burst at the house; I have sent an urgent e-mail to Kathy and Jim in Peru via the group they are with - I hope they get it and respond! If you're interested in the Peruvian rainforest, check out Amazonia Expeditions at www.perujungle.com - they have a very good website!

The lost cat of yesterday was named Basenji, and he lives with Tim up in A-209. He was extremely relieved to have Basenji back in his custody. My kits have been giving the entire bathroom a thorough exploration, since there was a "stranger" in there. Lovey is curled up on the foot of the bed, and Banichi is sleeping with his head resting on my left forearm while I type... it makes for an interesting hand angle... The birds have just about cleaned out the feeders, so I'll need to refill them and place more nuts out for the squirrels - and I might put a small bowl of kitty kibble out for the fox....

On our drive back from Pomona on that Sunday night - Kathy and I were both slap-happy - we were physically tired from the drive, and had been stressed by Glenn's sudden death and the meeting of a whole raft of "new" relatives (to us, that is).... As we were headed to Nevada for the night, driving west on US 44, we both laughed hysterically at the little gas station and convenience store sign that proudly read "Kum and Go." Then we passed a road sign showing that the town of Bois d'Arc was 5 miles to the north; after a moment, we discussed how the locals might pronounce their town's name - then I asked Kathy (and I swear, it was Glenn that made me do it), how many locals did she think knew the name meant Dark Woods? She said she didn't know.... and about 3 miles down the road, she said, "Wait a minute! That's not what it means!" I started laughing so hard I had to pull over and wipe away the tears. Then we passed a sign stating that both Mount Vernon and Chesapeake could be reached by the next exit, and we wanted to know how we'd suddenly ended up in Virginia - then came the sign for Peoria - and so on. Over all, it was definitely a good trip.

And we have a new baby in the family! Glenn has a new great-grandson, who was named Garret Evan. He arrived yesterday, weighing in at 8 pounds and 8 ounces. Congratulations to the family!!! - My husband's first granddaughter was born 7 hours after he passed away - I have a funny feeling that Madeline will be a lot like Jeffrey; and that Garret will turn out like Glenn!

Lights in Kansas & Colorado

It's 27 degrees outside now, with a wind chill of 15. My patio door is standing open, and a raven just chased Banichi across the backyard. One of the small squirrels is stuffing himself with peanuts and Lovey is on top of the cat-tree talking to the creatures outside. Last night was my first night in my own bed since last Friday; Lovey apparently didn't trust that I wouldn't leave during the night, as she crawled under the covers and then inside my nightgown to sleep for the night. It made turning over very interesting.

There were 28 people at the Snow Thanksgiving yesterday - we were missing sister Frannie, but Kent and his family came from South Dakota, and I was able to meet them. (The last time I saw Kent was at Kathy and Jim's wedding in 1981, and Kent was a senior in high school.) Everything went well, and we even saw a few snow flurries in the headlights of the truck on the way home -

I talked to Jim and Sarah about some of the things Kathy and I had seen on the way to and from Pomona... We both saw a shooting star Monday night in western Kansas; we were about 50 miles from the KS/CO line, and it was slightly to the south of I-70. ... Almost as soon as we crossed over the Colorado line, I started to see a reflection of light off the cloud cover to the west - it was light pollution from Denver that was visible all the way across the eastern CO plains. ...On our way east, in the dark on Saturday night, we saw this incredible light display to the north of the highway. Originally, it looked like a few microwave towers with steady red lights at different heights, and also with a few blinking red lights. Then we realized that it stretched out of sight over the northern horizon, it varied in height, and sometimes there was a small cluster and other times it seemed like long lines - all connected - and it stretched for over 10 miles. We felt as if we were inside Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and joked about power outages and waving mailboxes. Luckily, on our drive back west, we passed this place in the daylight - and saw that it was a wind farm. I've seen photos of wind farms, and I've seen bison and cattle at the base of one of the turbine masts in photos - but the first time seeing the real thing was simply amazing! I've felt short all my life, but here I felt like a pygmy!

I left Brandi last night and go over to Rosie and Remy today. Tomorrow I start with Silver and Smiley; it looks like I'll be driving Kathy and Jim to the airport in Denver on Sunday, where they'll take transport to norther Peru; and then I'll have Suki and Boo until the 14th or 15th of December. I'm going to move my kits over to Kathy and Jim's on Monday -

I hope each and every one of you has a super long weekend!!