Photo Challenge – Rise/Set

Rise/Set

I love both sunrise and sunset so to find just one image for a Photo Challenge this week almost paralyzed me! I have so many….I have too many!

What tends to be my favourite type of “rise” or “set” pictures is actually PRE-sunrise or POST-sunset when the glow takes over our beautiful Alberta sky.

When I have an interesting subject to go along with the majesty above me – well…it ends up being just too good to be true!!

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Vacation

So when my hubby and I finally take a vacation…..where do we go? Well to hang out with more cows and more horses and more bulls….we go to a stampede!

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The Ponoka Stampede in fact! A two and a half drive from the ranch. We drive away from our peaceful, comfortable homey ranch to set up our trailer in this conglomeration of others seeking “time away” a “change of routine” a “break” some “rest and relaxation”.

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We really did end up having a great time away from “the routine” and we truly enjoyed the socializing and the entertainment that we are blessed with on a daily basis at a professional rodeo type event….I find myself wanting to be one of these guys though…right in the arena catching the action WAY more closeup than my telephoto allows me from the grandstands.

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Ends up though that there really are lots of photo opportunities to satisfy this rodeo-photographer-wanna-be even from her perch in the stands.

 

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I’m afraid this “vacation-mode” compelled me to take a short vacation from my blog! Operative word…”short”. That’s what a vacation is for. To get recharged with gusto to carry on!

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Photo Challenge – Life Imitates Art

This week’s challenge is to imitate a work of art in some way shape or form. I found that the process of taking on this challenge created a story itself.

Life Imitates Art

This past Christmas my husband received a small table sculpture from his twin boys of a praying cowboy by his horse.

I thought this would be a cool piece of art to recreate with him and his dedicated, faithful hard-working horse. When asked, I was thrilled that my husband willingly agreed. I thought I would have to beg and plead!

We chose today, after chores, to tackle the project. Because we have had our two older horses out in the field partnered up all on their own, it required hubby to quad out to them this afternoon to halter up his gelding, T-Bone. The second horse, Shadow, trotted right alongside. Horses need to be together and these two are the best of friends.

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Subsequently, when separated, Shadow became very anxious and ran along the fenceline in despair for the duration of our project because her T-Bone buddy was taken out of her sight.

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We needed to set up out of view so we could try to recreate a “peaceful”, prayerful pose of cowboy and quiet horse. We went with a couple of different renditions:

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A few minutes later, it was all over, the humans had their photo challenge fun and the friends were reunited, free to graze and meander without human intervention for a few more weeks.

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I Hate Cancer

When my stepchildren were young, I remember cautioning them to think twice about using that “hate” word….that it was an awfully strong word. Well I can’t hold back on that word these days. I have to say I do hate cancer and now what it is doing to my beautiful young cousin Karin. She’s not even forty and she finds herself battling a very aggressive cancer that is in fact diagnosed as terminal.

I dedicate every day to her. Nothing that happens in my daily routine can be as scary or as painful or as stressful as what she has to awaken to every day. I can pray for her, for her family, for her doctors but I wanted to do something a bit tangible too. So my husband and I entered a cancer fundraiser on the weekend in honour of her. It’s called a Cutter Rally and many horse-drawn cutters and haywagons gathered to ride either a 3 or 7 mile route through the fields on a sunny yet windchilling day. The cowboys, like my husband, rode horseback but most of us were either passengers or teamsters of a horse-drawn sleigh of some sort. We raised a tidy sum of money towards cancer research and funding efforts and had great fellowship with like-minded, good-hearted folks.

Here’s the one and only cadillac-heated version of a horse-drawn cutter….the rest of us were open to the elements.

And here is the view I had from my seat on a hay wagon…