Sunday stills: Halloween

Halloween, my favorite should be holiday.

If you were around last year you would remember what happens to pumpkins around here after they have been lit.

If not please indulge in last years Sunday stills post on Halloween pumpkins you won't be disappointed.

So once you have read that post you can only imagine the fate of our little friend here. Indigo had just discovered that he was around.



Have a fun and safe Halloween everyone.

Encore: The devil and the horse shoe

I posted this on day short of a year ago last year. Since it is devils night/angels night today we need a story to start off the spooky season.
It's a story I grew up hearing from my mothers best friend. Not long before she passed away she sent me a bunch of horse related papers. This was a story in the bundle of horse related papers I acquired and remembered her telling me when I was young. Enjoy.

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I am sure each and every one of you have seen an old horse shoe hanging over the door. Do you know why we hang horseshoes over the door? For good luck right? Well that isn't the original reason behind it.
My mothers best friend was a farrier and gave me this story of the devil and the horseshoe when I was very little. According to her it is out of a a 1912 horseshoers journal. The legend however originated in Germany. I hope on this day my mothers friend is watching down on all the trick or treaters. Halloween was her favorite day of the year.


Many, many years ago, in a little German village a blacksmith was hard at work. The sounds of the anvil attracted the attention of the devil. He saw the man making horse shoes and thought getting his own hooves shod would be a good idea. The devil struck a deal with the man and put his foot up. But the blacksmith knew right away who he was dealing with and so he nailed a red hot shoe square into the devils hoof. The devil paid the man and left but the blacksmith was honest; he cast the money into the fire knowing it would bring him bad luck.
The devil left the forge walking a long distance. Soon he began to suffer in agony from the shoes. The more the devil danced, pranced, kicked, swore and played tricks on people the more torture he endured from the shoes. After going through the most painful agony he had ever imagined, the devil tore the shoes off and threw them away.
From that moment to this whenever the devil sees a horseshoe he runs in the opposite direction; eager to keep away from the torturous devices.
German peasants remember this legend and because of it you will scarcely find a doorway or barn that does ot have a horseshoe nailed above it.
Of course horse shoes to keep in the good luck if kept upright. To hang a horseshoe upside down you made all the luck fall out!

So on this halloween hang horseshoes above your doors and in your barns for you never know which ghoul, goblin or little demon might be making their ways onto your doorstep

So what is it.

Well since no one actually got it. I'll tell you.

Yes it's a type of french braid. A french braid refers to adding hair to the strands you are braiding each time you cross them over, both left and right sides.

It can also be a running braid but alas it is not. A a running braid refers to a tight braid along the crest that you only add mane on the top so it hangs down a little off the crest (which can vary depending on breed standards or the horse but mostly the person braiding it)

French braid.

Running braid. See the difference? In the running braid I added hair only to the right strand when I crossed it under since this is a "dutch " or underhand braid. It can be tight to the crest too but this one was not and was the only example close up.

However since yesterdays braid was not your traditional french, dutch or otherwise three strand braid it only has to be...

A diamond braid or four strand round braid.
Difficult to do on four strings alone with the added difficulty of adding extra hair to put it into a mane. It takes me almost twice as long to do this compared to a regular three strand.
Lets just say Indigo is the most patient horse ever.

Really, no more pictures.

Please. No more.

FINE! One last one.

Note at this point I was standing about 15 feet away as Indigo stood in the driveway with no one holding her. She tried oh so hard to resist sneaking over to the grass. Telephoto lenses, good most of the time.

Of course it would not be complete without doing the tail too!

Why what a nice spotty bum you have there girl.

And a view from the side, much different from your regular three strand french braid in the tail.

So there you have it, a new braid to the braids in a horses mane and tail collection. What will I whip up next? Well it involves five strands and my hand cramped a lot today after I was done.

Macro Monday: What type of braid?

Who can tell me what type of braid this is?

Hint: it is a type of french braid and It's in Indigo's mane.

Shes the most patient horse. Ever.

Look to the following post for the answer.

Sunday stills: Fall foliage

Fall is probably one of the most colourful times of year but for me it means winter is coming. I hate cold.

I got the chance this week to photograph my cousin and her boyfriend. My cousin wanted some pictures done for christmas for both of their parents so I was called to bat.

I finally splurged and got the newest version of light room because I mostly shoot in RAW it's very helpful to have an easy to use, powerful program at my disposal; especially on this day because pictures were dark due to overcast.
A photographer looking for great pictures will go to great lengths for that "shot". I climbed up a tree to get this one. Then I almost fell out of it as a branch almost cracked in half. Call me nimble I landed on my feet before it nearly snapped and I broke my camera and face.

In our long growing season (longest in Ontario) our trees are still pretty green. I was up closer to Toronto this week and it seemed the trees were orange and yellow and red, not green then brown like here.

Driving down the escarpment on my recent road trip adventure. You can't tell I was in a vehicle.
Then back up another part of the escarpment. See how pretty the trees are there?! I think it has something to do with hills. I love hills. I want to live in the hills.

Just as we rounded a corner we had to dodge a branch sticking out. That was close. You can see the truck antenna there on the right. I had to be quick to snap that one.
Just for the record I was not driving and taking pictures at the same time.

Some oak leaves which I had to seriously edit due to someone screwing up my white balancing attempts several times. You know who you are.

I have to admit fall does have some benefits like this lovely colour. However it means winter is just around the corner. Brrrrr!

Have you hugged someone today?

Where have I been all week?
Why am I hugging a chicken?
Well it goes something like this:

On my way back from my absence this week I stopped at my friends place.They have chickens. Friendly chickens and I love chickens. I was petting them and feeding them and chasing them around trying to catch them.

I don't remember exactly why I hugged this hen, I guess she looked like she needed one.

Then she laid her head down on my shoulder and returned the favor.

...She pooped on my sleeve.

Oh I almost forgot

I didn't put this picture in yesterdays Sunday stills posts on cars.

It was a couple winters ago. I went out to get into my car and found this massive drift that seems to have engulfed it. That winter it didn't go 7 days without snowing at least once. I think I shoveled more snow that winter than I did all other winters combined.

It makes me want to pack up and move to Florida.

Say it with me- Go back to Alaska winter!
I want summer back and it's not even close to our first sssssssnow yet. Brrr.

The leaves are turning all sorts of lovely colours though. I am glad because this morning I am embarking on a road trip for a few days to a place where there's more hills, lovely colours and prettier scenery than our flat county.
So what is your favorite season?
See ya all in a few days.

Sunday stills: Cars

Cars are kind of a necessary evil in this day and age. If it was possible I would not drive. I do however appreciate a good vehicle.

I like my car.

It's kinda dirty. I think cats were walking across it again.

There's a rasp in the passenger side floor because I keep forgetting it's there. It worked it's way under the seat and I forgot about it.

Theres some scratches and scrapes (from before I drove it thank you very much).

My rear view mirror air freshener dangles there as my car mascot.

The windows offer some interesting reflections.

Though I do like my car I would much rather have a truck. I enjoy the mornings at my one barn that I get to drive the big beast Chevy dually to the feed store a couple towns over and get grain.

Especially red trucks. My dad has always had red trucks. I like red trucks. (I think he was less impressed than I was when I showed him pictures of the neighbors cat sitting around on his truck. He does like this cat though it comes to visit him when the garage door is open.)

The funny thing about this is after all this transportation is done we load our horses up in a trailer to take them places. Call it the modern irony of automobiles; transporting the transportation.

Wordless Wednesday

(PSSSSST! Click for full view and really look around to see whats really going on)

Do you know what time it almost is?

It's fall for sure (boo, come back summer!) This means winter is on it's way (BOOOOOO!!) It's also Canadian thanksgiving.
I am thankful for a large, extended family, all sorts of loving and caring friends, horses, boots, work, being able to fix my computer...Wait where was I? OH! and food. Oh boy was there food.

But mostly every thanksgiving (Cause we are in Canadaland here eh?) everyone whos anyone goes to Wheatley provincial park for the week/weekend.
It has to be good, you have book these campsites in May. Oh and you can't just do one day either it's gotta be like Tuesday till Sunday deal that you have a site for.

Why all week? Well the last weekend of camping at Wheatley is always the Canadian thanksgiving weekend so they have Halloween. Halloween is crazy. Theres kids and adults running in every direction in all sorts of costumes. People popping out of bushes, dropping ghosts on your heads, dressing up their campsites and handing out candy and jello shots. (those are fake teeth by the way, Barry is actually a dentist) Lets just say it's worth it.

Most of all there's costumes. Have I ever mentioned how much I absolutely loooooove Halloween? Yeah, halloween is coming it's probably my most favorite non-holiday, holiday.
I dress up every year. I am a pirate this year. I made my whole costume, especially my hat. It's my favorite piece and I sacrificed a feather duster in honor of it needing good plumage. I mean not like feather dusters are good for anything anyway other than using their pretty large feathers for artsy creations. Right?

I also paint faces. More faces than I can count usually. Sometimes I re-do faces several times. For instance, Noah.
Army man Saturday night.


Darth Maul Sunday.

I think I might end up with carpal tunnel. At the very least my hands will be stained all the mixed colours of the rainbow.

Of course my nephew Zach and his friend Tyler were tweedle dee and tweedle dum from alice in wonderland. Tylers little sister was Alice. They were too busy goofind around to stop for pictures.

Ok, well almost.

The real star of the show was Seth. He was dead set on wanting to be the mad hatter. The problem is, where does one find a mad hatter costume? My mothers sewing table of course.


My mother single handedly made and collected every part of this costume. Especially the hat. I mean it wouldn't be the mad hatter without a really good hat now would it. She worked for a long time on that hat and I have to say it's really neat. Seth, I mean the mad hatter had more pictures taken of him that day than I think he has his whole life.

Then once night fell the real fun began. We turned our backs for what seemed like a second and there was a crowd of people around our campsites lightshow. That was not what they were watching. A young guy came up and was dancing, move for move to Michael Jackson's Thriller, backed up by the synchronized to the song, blinking light show. Everyone stopped to watch and before we knew it there were 30+ people standing around watching this guy. He received a standing ovation in the end and even hung around for an encore.

The next day we geared up in our turkey pants (buttons open) and also did some hiking to the beach. Kids + beach= sand will be thrown, dumped and people/things will be buried.

Poor Noah, never stood a chance. Neither did my sisters plight to keep her three boys clean. Oh well.

What a weekend, now I think I will get ready for next weekend. Zombie walk anyone?

Sunday stills: billboards

I knew at some point I had taken a picture of a billboard.
This one was from the trip to the King Tut exhibit Lisa and I went to in March.
I thought it was really neat, it was in the sidewalk near the AGO advertising the Ontario art college. Finding a billboard out here in the buttcrack of the world requires a 30-45 minute drive and with my computer dying earlier in the week it was just not in the cards. So sorry folks, thats all I can get this week.
For more billboards check out Sunday stills

Happy turkey day to all my fellow Canadian bloggers.

I remember a time when...

I remember a time when I used to ride my bike and skin my elbows and knees. I rode too fast and took most turns too sharply. I got back up and skinned them again like every kid.
Now I ride horses and haven't touched my bike in weeks. I still ride my horse fast but sometimes I don't let go of the gate quick enough when I am closing it. I still land and skin my butt though. Thanks for that one Indigo.

I remember a time when I used to ride Indigo in a bit.
Her mane was grey and not the silver you all see now. She just had her 13th birthday. (Apparently I did not have an ounce of fashion sense either because I look like I weigh 300 pounds in my baggy barn bum clothes I loved so much way back when. At least I was wearing my blundstones)
She was light, responsive and seemed perfectly comfortable in a bit. Science told me otherwise.
Shes completely bitless now, how time flies.

I remember a time when I did not have a computer.
Wait, scratch that. I remember a time when I did not have internet and rely on it to get things done, like things that make me money. A job, writing, photography.
Now I need a computer. One that works.

I remember a time when said computer worked. I mean the computer that works my external hard drive and stuff because my other one refuses to accept the terms my external runs by.
Now I have one fried hard drive and a second computer that will not run my external with everything on it.

I remember a time when I fixed a lot of computers and built a few too.
Now all those extra parts and things I accumulated have been given or thrown away. I regret this now because the parts I need are long gone.

I think I want to go back to remembering what it was like when, minus the bitted part. Until I snap out of that I probably won't be around to as many blogs to comment because memories don't fix computers. Rest in pieces dear main computer.

Sunday stills: Red and green

The only two pictures I managed to take for the challenge before all chaos erupted at the end of this week involving drama at one of my barns and a sort of emergency trip to Hamilton. Back to Brandford on Sunday too.

The red barn and corn, because it's still too green to begin harvesting.

Bag balm, because this is the face, hands, feet and everything salve. You got dry skin, fixes it. You got windburn, fixes it. You got cracked feet(or knuckles), fixes it. You got a horse that has a cut, keeps it supple. Or as I recently discovered upon running out of hoof creme, putting it on the preiople of the hoof and sole every day will make a hoof more flexible in just a couple days. Try it.