A Story -"The Invisible Woman" and interesting Fungi, and pretty Mare and Foal

 A story:

The Invisible Woman

At the restaurant, elderly Patricia spied two Italian-suited middle-aged men sitting a couple of tables away from her.  They kept leaning towards each other, speaking in low voices.  Patrica turned up her hearing aid until she could hear what they were saying.

"We need to get rid of the Attorney General.  He won't work with us."

"Georgio can do the job."

Shocked, Patricia turned on audio record on her phone.  As they were leaving, she discreetly took photos.

She e-mailed her information to the police.

The puzzled looks on the men's faces when they were arrested, made her smile.

This fungi looks like layered rock.  Very attractive design.

With doom and gloom in the news,  I think it's nice to see a peaceful picture of this lovely mare and her foal.  This is a picture I took a few years ago. The horse belonged to my neighbour.

Another month to the shortest day and then we turn the corner.  Take care.

September Days

 

The nighttime temperatures are close to the freezing point and the trees and perennials are changing colour.

A colourful maple nestled in among the other trees.

Josephine Honore Japanese Anemone.

A funny angle of old Pepper who is now 23 years old. He earns his keep trimming the grass in the backyard. Silly old boy. I have owned him for 17 years now.

Pony Filly

 A friend's pony had a little filly last week. She has the cutest markings. The father is a paint pony with traditional blotches but this little girl has just a symmetrical white patch on her rump.

She was having fun running around but mom just wanted to eat.

Her tail is bi-colour, white at the top and black lower down. Very sweet pony and she got lots of "oohs" and " aahs" from her admirers the other evening.

A Bright November Day

 "More, please!"

 "The (Sweet) Old  Grey Mare"

 Should I horse-nap him?

 The beavers have been hard at work. The larger tree is about 5" in diameter.  Amazing how they can handle such large pieces of wood.

 They have made two dams that show in this photo and another one further down stream.

 A ghost leaf.

For some strange reason, this bi-colour phlox hasn't frozen like the other phlox.

Some thoughts: no government lasts forever,  no war lasts forever, no storm lasts forever.
History is a gift to us to help us with perspective. And as the Friendly Giant use to say, "Look up, look way up!"

How Did the Cows Cross the Road?

They went through the culvert!  These cows were pasturing in a field across the road from the barn.  We drove by late afternoon, and I guess they figured it was time to go to the barn for milking so they were all making their way through the culvert.  No encouragement was needed by a person .  They knew the drill.

 Here they are coming out the other side.

 As they made their way up to the barn, a few of them stopped to say hello to the horses.

I blew this picture up so I could see the horses better.  It looks like a mom and her baby.  The baby is curious, and mom appears to be chewing on the fence post. Maybe they come over to the fence every morning and afternoon to say hi to the cows.

Off To The Races

 Inverness has a harness racing track just on the edge of town.  My sister knows somebody who is involved with one of the horses so on race day we decided to go see the ponies.  I know next to nothing about harness racing other than they drive Standardbred horses and some races feature "pacers" and some "trotters", but I thought it would be more fun if we tried to assess the horses and put some money down. 

We bought a program that listed the nine races and which horses were running.  That seemed simple enough, but wait a minute what was all this on the other pages...

all kinds of statistics, and breeding history, and other inscrutable information. We were, after all, just at the Inverness (population 1,500) racetrack.  I had sorely underestimated how seriously the local people were involved with the horses.  We decided that given our ignorance, our best chance of picking a winner would simply be to watch them warm up. We placed $2 bets for the top three spots in three races and managed to get the show (3rd place) right in a couple of races. That earned us $4.20 on our $18 investment.  The last race featured a horse called Seaside Lizzie, and because my sister's name is Elizabeth, we decided pick her as the winner even though her odds weren't great.  Well, she came through for us with a thrilling finish and we made a whopping $8 for our $2 bet. We also managed to pick the show for that race.  All told we were only down $10 for the afternoon. 

Some of the winners had their picture taken in front of the scoreboard.  I love the way it's a family affair -even the dog gets to be in the picture.
A little bit of info on harness racing.  Harness racing goes back to the end of the 1700's and the founding sire for Standardbreds was an English horse called Messenger.  The standard was being able to do a mile in 2 minutes and 30 seconds at a trot or pace.  Horses that could meet that standard were eligible to be registered as Standardbreds.  They are similar to Thoroughbreds that are used for regular flat racing, but they are a little heavier and less high strung. Standardbred horses sometimes have the ability to pace which means that instead of trotting with diagonal legs moving at the same time, the two legs on the same side move at the same time.   The races are set for either trotters or pacers as pacing is a slightly faster gait than trotting. Most Standardbreds are bays or dark brown, but they can be any colour.
Many small towns in Canada had a track similar to this one.  It used to be the only legal way to gamble.  Now even the large tracks are struggling to stay afloat as there are lots of other ways to gamble.

Touches of White

At this time of year, the more colourful wild flowers still aren't in bloom; however, many touches of white brighten up the mostly green landscape.  Above, valerian grows in many waste areas.  Later it will give off a lovely smell reminiscent of heliotrope.

A bit of decorative fencing. I decided that I wouldn't just look for white flowers, but also other touches of white in the lanscape.

I keep hearing the orioles, but it is so hard to see them once the trees leaf out. But today, I spotted one in,  I think,  a nannyberry bush. Yes, I know he is not white, but the blossoms are white. He does have a little bit of white on his wing.

"Where's the white?" you ask.  Actually the mesh crib holding rocks is painted white. It's interesting because this spring a beaver decided to improve on the damn by adding branches and dirt.  The water is definitely being held back better.

Canada anemone 

In the distance, some farm buildings.

Foam flower.

Bladder campion

I'm surprised this dandelion still has its hair since we've had wind and rain lately.

And finally, my neighbour's horse sporting a white blaze right to the tip of her nose.

Pepper Says Hi

 "Hay there, Gin!  Hope you're having a good week and thanks for being interested in me.
I'm 17 years old and I live at my "forever" home with my owner who doesn't ride me anymore.
She likes to take me for walks so I can eat grass, and to brush me so my coat stays shiny.  What do I do for her, you ask?  I talk to her in my horsey voice and eat all the carrots and apples she gives me.
Seems like a even bargain to me."

 My curious look.

 My shy look.

My intelligent look.

"I've got to go now.  There's more food that needs eating. Happy trails."

Gallery of Grass

  I present to you a gallery of grass.

Beautiful to look at .  Even yummier to eat.