Patience

The garden is free of leaves, branches and winter scatter. I was at Wal-Mart yesterday and saw ladies purchasing tomato plants... pepper plants... and all kinds of annual flowers. I am thinking it would be best to wait... two more weeks perhaps.

The horses are not shedding their winter coats yet. Which tells me, the cold weather is not over!!

Patience!

And I have so very little of it.

Pansies at the Pond

Playing with the layout... will probably have to edit a couple of times... also playing with a different camera (as mine quit... my new digitial SLR will be here Monday... Yippee!!)

An angle can make a complete difference. Aperture setting.

And then you get a completely different look.

Isn't Photography fun??!!

Enjoy your flowers.

Early Spring Visitors

Like a beautiful pink camellia that's how you appear to me

That bloom in chilly August on it's dark green mother tree

So bright and fresh and pretty in the wintery wind and rain

That's how you've always looked to me and that's how you will remain.

The beautiful camellia flower that blooms fresh and young today

In two or three weeks if that long will have gone into decay

For flowers have such a brief span they quickly fade away

Francis Duggan

This spring as it comes bursts up in bonfires green,

Wild puffing of emerald trees, and flame-filled bushes,

Thorn-blossom lifting in wreaths of smoke between

Where the wood fumes up and the watery, flickering rushes.

I am amazed at this spring, this conflagration

Of green fires lit on the soil of the earth, this blaze

Of growing, and sparks that puff in wild gyration

Faces of people streaming across my gaze.

And I, what fountain of fire am I among

This leaping combustion of spring? My spirit is tossed

About like a shadow buffeted in the throng

Of flames, a shadow that's gone astray, and is lost.

D.H. Lawrence (1916)

Thou yellow trumpeter of laggard Spring!

Thou herald of rich Summer's myriad flowers!

The climbing sun with new recovered powers

Does warm thee into being, through the ring

Of rich, brown earth he woos thee, makes thee fling

Thy green shoots up, inheriting the dowers

Of bending sky and sudden, sweeping showers,

Till ripe and blossoming thou art a thing

To make all nature glad, thou art so gay;

To fill the lonely with a joy untold;

Nodding at every gust of wind to-day,

To-morrow jewelled with raindrops. Always bold

To stand erect, full in the dazzling play

Of April's sun, for thou hast caught his gold.

Amy Lowell

The hens are out enjoying the sun in their favorite dusting hole! Soon there will be scads of fuzzy bundles following their mother around the yard. Baby chicks are indeed a "flower of spring"

And Broosty Roosty is awaiting his chance to nail me when I turn my back and the opportunity arises! He is a sneaky little dickens.

The Birds Are Ready For Spring As Well!

You have to believe in happiness,

Or happiness never comes...

Ah, that's the reason a bird can sing -

On his darkest day he believes in Spring!

~ Douglas Malloch ~

A bird came down the walk;

He did not know I saw;

He bit an angle-worm in halves

And ate the fellow, raw.

And then he drank a dew

From a convenient grass,

And then hopped sidewise to the wall

To let a beetle pass.

He glanced with rapid eyes

That hurried all abroad,--

They looked like frightened beads, I thought;

He stirred his velvet head

Like one in danger; cautious,

I offered him a crumb,

And he unrolled his feathers

And rowed him softer home

Than oars divide the ocean,

Too silver for a seam,

Or butterflies, off banks of noon,

Leap, splashless, as they swam.

~ Emily Dickinson ~

It is amazing that it has been almost a month since I have wrote. WOW. I, myself, am glad Christmas is over. I took down my "fake" tree tonight, still have the lights up (because they make the yard to pretty at this somewhat bare time of year) and am glad it is done. A New Year's resolution is to walk my 30 acre pasture (with camera in my hand of course) every day. I saw this today...
I acquired a couple of new mares this week... and while on my way to pick them up, I saw this site... pretty common, but not by my camera. *grin* Mississippi Road is what I call it.

We had snow. My girls' first. I grew up in Oklahoma and love the Deep South because of the lack of it. Whoop de do. But made some nice photos. The Equines were not real happy either.

I hope all enjoyed a Merry Christmas. I look forward to the next year. My garden was just taking shape the end of this last season... It will be FABULOUS this next year. Happy New Year to All!!

Rambling Around My Garden

I picked up a bunch of rose bushes from Wal-Mart after the season

was over. They "really" seem to like it here and are blooming

prolifically. Especially this one, which I planted over the grave of my beloved

MinPin, Brandi Twinkle Toes, who passed away in September.

My husband teases me by saying they must really like

"dead dog".

He is so mean.

A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!

Rose plot,

Fringed pool,

Ferned grot ---

The veriest school

Of peace; and yet the fool

Contends that God is not ---

Not God! in gardens! when the eve is cool?

Nay, but I have a sign;

'Tis very sure God walks in mine.

Thomas Edward Brown

My goldfish deck is pictured above. Showing its age a bit,

but loved and used everyday, just as it has been the past 12 years.

Above is the tomato bush. My husband tells me they need to be
"beaten" to produce tomatos. He decided it needed transplanting
the first of the summer after I had it growing fine for a month.
Durn near killed it then.
Then the hornworms ate it down to nothing... twice.
It has really taken off the past couple of weeks.
We got down to 34 last night... and it looks bright and perky this
morning with lots of blooms and several tomatos.
Perhaps a heavy freeze will hold off until we get to eat a few.

My beautiful little Saffron Finches... warm and toasty under their
heat lamp.

My Princess of Wales grasskeet. Quite photogenic!

My nasty lettuce from a previous post... looking oh so awesome!
And Brusty Roosty sneaking into the shot.

More lettuce with the bright little pansies getting into full bloom.

To bad the "bunny" doesn't like the lettuce either!

Yes! ShadowySteeds Has Horses!

Yesterday, I was asked about my blog name... ShadowySteeds. Yes, I have horses. And I they are as important as my garden! Above is my Paint stallion, Smooth Rebel Cause. I decided to post a few photos of my equines that were taken in a "garden" setting... as I, as an equine photographer, think they should be!

As you will note, the azaleas offer so many photo opportunities. Above is my Egyptian Arabian mare, Fi Zilylah. 18 years young this coming Feb.

The old mare Serr Beth, another Egyptian Arabian. She has since passed at the age of 28. But I love this photo and have an oil pastel I did hanging on my wall in her memory.

Azaleas again (I just love them for photo shoots). And a Straight Egyptian Arabian stallion I used to own. Fi Zilylah, above, is his daughter....

My oldest daughter some years back on her first pony, Fancy

Just a pretty shot of a Half Arab mare I have now. She is for sale!

My first Paint mare. She still graces my pastures and has had many fine foals

Old Dahriefa, Al Khamsa Arabian mare, with my pines behind her. Sadly, they are all gone due to Katrina. And so is Dahriefa...

Just wanted to share.