Aaah-some!
What a weekend! Saturday I went to the 50 on 50th Art Show and bought a couple things to fill an empty slot on my book shelf. The tree on the right was welded by my friend Sue. I have enough horse decor and decided I needed some art depicting my other loves — trees and a bike seemed perfect.
After checking out the great art and having lunch with friends at Edina Grill and a cupcake at Sweet Retreat (whoa baby!), I wanted to get outdoors to enjoy what remained of the day. So we packed up bikes and headed to Elm Creek for a bike ride.
The bike trails are some of the same trails I take when Java and I go skijoring in the winter. I don’t remember the trails being so hilly when I ski them. It was a lot tougher to travel by bike. I actually had full blown lung burn after an especially long and steep climb. Taking a photo was a good excuse to stop and catch my breath.
We took a detour cross country for a bit but I wasn’t crazy about the narrow rutted trail, nor that the trail took us backwards to where we’d already rode.
After having such a big lunch, I wasn’t planning on having dinner but after several hill climbs I decided I could afford some extra calories and ended up eating more than my share of pizza for dinner. I pretty much fell into bed Saturday evening.
After doing some yard work Sunday morning, I met up with two other friends at the barn to go trail riding. There are so few nice days left before winter hits that I’m squeezing as much out of each day as possible.
While the 3 of us were preparing to load our horses onto a 3-horse trailer, a 4th friend showed up at the barn and was game for a ride too. So we took two trailers and headed to a park about an hour away.
It was the opening weekend for rifle deer hunting so a few of us were sporting orange even though there shouldn’t have been any hunters in the area. Key word is “shouldn’t,” doesn’t mean there won’t be any.
It was about a 3 hour ride around the park. Most of the leaves have dropped so the trails aren’t as pretty as they are in the summer and fall, but the stark outlines of the upright and fallen trees are lovely in their own right.
The sun was getting low in the sky when we got back to the trailers and loaded up.
It was all out dark when we got back to the stable and unloaded.
What a great weekend! But I wish I had tomorrow off to rest.
glad you had a good time, enjoy the weather while you can. We had sleet and rain here in Maine tonight.
Sleet and rain! Say it’s not so! It is looking rather ugly temperature wise for next weekend if the predictions hold true.
Wonderful pictures and I love your art choices.
I wish I had someone to ride with, I might be braver.
Sounds like a fantastic weekend! I am so glad you have so many people to ride with!
That last shot of you and Luke says it all. Don’t you love it when the ground is covered with leaves?
Gail – I rode alone all last summer. It took a lot of courage and is only doable if you have a certain kind of horse that I’m fortunate to have. But riding in a group, my horse is certainly a lot happier and confident. I hope you can find some people to hook up with.
Paint Girl – That’s been the good thing about boarding. I’ve met so many other riders that like to trail ride and then they know people who know more people. It’s a chain reaction.
Lori – I do like that last shot. I don’t do a full smile very often, self conscious teeth issues from having silver caps as a child. Funny how you don’t get over that even after the source of embarrassment is gone. We did make several comments about loving the crunching leave sound and the fall smells.
So glad you had a good weekend and now have some horse gals to pal around with. Sometimes the universe has to force us out of our comfort zone. It feels like something we don’t want, but turns out to be good. 🙂 Your shelf looks awesome btw.
Love the picture of you with Luke and you are right, you SHOULD smile more as you have a great smile and your eyes just light up when you do 🙂 What a fun weekend! I’m glad I was part of it. Your art looks great ~ those pieces were made to be together! It sure is a good thing you didn’t buy a BLUE and brown horse/bicycle 🙂 I actually am drawn to the barren trees and have been for years, then a couple years ago I read somewhere that the bare tree is a symbol of strength. I think it is fitting that you enjoy the beauty. I see it in you as well 🙂 Kathleen
Love that last picture! What a fun filled weekend.
Beautiful documentation of your full and fun weekend! I love the artwork and the pictures but girl…that sunset pic is incredible!
Thanks for lettin’ us tag along!
God bless ya and have super week sweetie!!!
Sue – It’s good to have peeps as you know. I’m lovin’ the tree.
Kathleen – I can’t quit thinking about those dang cupcakes. I’m so bummed I missed the biking lesson so I could feel all darey too. No photos?
Jill – Thanks. I think it’s the best one I’ve got of my horse and I.
Nezzy – There have been some dramatic sun sets and rises lately. I’m thinking there’s some deeper meaning there.
Great photos!!! Wow, you were so busy that day. I love what you bought from the Burroughs School (and I really wanted that bike platter…maybe next year…I liked the dragonflies too!)b…that turned out to be an awesome show. From there we went to Art Attack.
I can see why you’d want to rest up after a weekend like that.