Horsies in the Snow, Ho, Ho!

It will definitely give you some insight into the wildly stuffed ragbag that is my mind when I tell you that as I drove past the horse boarding stable, this morning (the Big Snow, we had nearly two feet flat and more in drifts, being now plowed) anyway, where was I, oh yes, driving past the horse place, I saw various horsies out in the field poking about in the snow, wearing warm red and blue coats and looking very contented.

And I immediately thought, oh yes, pigeons on the grass, alas! And immediately booted G. Stein out of my conscious mind and replaced it with, oh, I mean, horsies in the snow, ho, ho....

Owing to a New York driver (the license plate told me) tailgating me all the way past the farm, I was unable to pull over and get pix, since the road is even narrower now with big icebergs and snow berms on each side, no safe way to stop unless the driver behind has a NJ plate and knows not to drive so close, so that if you start to stop, they know to get around you with plenty of time to spare.

Now, in fairness, I must say that around here a NY plate usually means someone who drives in the city, Manhattan, that city, and there it's considered enormously polite and kind and in the spirit of the season to allow a whole ten feet between you and the car in front, maybe even foolhardy, if you don't want another car to insert itself right in there, too.

However, this is not the city, and around here it's considered downright dangerous to be that close on a deserted country road, where the driver ahead can't turn off, no shoulders, no turns, it's considered rude and not in the spirit of the season at all and very likely to end in a rear-end collision. But as I say, mores vary. Anyway, I hope to see the horses again in their cheery coats before the snow goes, and maybe even get portraits to share.

This is why this blog starts out instead with seasonal amaryllis in the living room, busting out in red, much to HP's pleasure, he loves red.

And, news from the studio: I will show you pictures of art, my completed set of three tapestries, to be exact. Rubs toe in dirt, aw shucks, twere nuthin, I got em finished is all...and this makes a lovely symmetrical art experience in that in the one calendar year I learned to warp a loom, create tapestries, process fleece from farmy stuff, via carding, and combing and spinning, all new skills, all the way to using the yarn in my tapestry, and completing the set of three just in time before the month ends.








Started in the spring before it was warm enough to work on the patio, learning to spin and curse until I got it down to just spinning, no cursing, then spent the last cool days indoors washing and drying fleece, then the summer carding and combing and cleaning and spinning and dyeing, oh, I forgot to brag that I learned to dye, too, and then the fall designing and making the tapestries including a lot of fibers, but a goodly amount of my own spun yarn, and finished up the last panel last night while we watched A Christmas Carol, the George C. Scott one, pretty well done for such an old chestnut. So it came to a seasonal end, the art, that is. For the moment, that is.

That's the blog version of those awful Year in the News things that the newspapers and radio programs and tv does, saving no end of production money by hauling out stuff they used before and relabeling it High Points of the Year....so I kept it short, wanting you to click in here again sometime, after all.

And on a more sober note, HP's year went from as bad as it could possibly be, to stable, no further gains expected, and fairly happy,and looking forward to the New Year. Which says a lot more for his character than for the events he endured, I must say! and it says something very good about our friends, including all of you blogerati, who gave us unlimited encouragement and support and some fun, even.

So, okay, we're ready for Santa!