Cool Mountain Air, Deer, A Heron and some Hosses

Even my friends in the UK are sweltering through this summer's heat wave but I've got to brag now: I'm sitting here just a little bit chilly from this cool mountain air. Not only that but earlier this evening when I was going around taking the little spent lily heads off their stalks to make way for fresh new ones and deadheading the roses I heard this funny noise and looked up to see three lovely deer bounding through the trees not far away. I stayed very quiet and stealthily snuck behind the chicken coop and on up past the barn and they were there, staring...transfixed, maybe thinking I wouldn't see them if they played "statue" for awhile. They were nearly right, but that white strip near their tails gave them away. I am pretty near-sighted, though.

The day started out with taking a big load of rubbish to the dump (an hour's drive away) and I thought I'd treat myself to a few hours in the presence of horseflesh, so I drove on up to Saugerties and stopped in at the HITS horse show...whoa, talk about some high dollar hosses! Yikes! I got talking to one woman who informed me that there were some National-level classes at this show - and some Olympians competing! I thought some of them dandies had some fine seats. Tell you the truth I didn't care a lick for the riders...it was the horses that caught my eye. They jumped with such heart. But I gotta say I'd rather see them running wild across the Welsh moors.

As a spectator it was quite a walk (knowing me I found the longest, most difficult way to go) threading through the rows of stables and down roads and paths; at one point the path passed through a marshy kind of area and a great blue heron rose above the reeds...now that was an unexpected pleasure. I didn't get to touch any of those captivating horses, but being around them made me long to be back in Wales once again following the horses and hounds with my buddies Mike and Charlie.

I'm sitting here feeling the cool Catskill night air through the old-timey screens seeing the undersides of about a zillion bugs and moths stuck on the outsides. My light is graciously provided by a deer-foot lamp (yep, real deer feet - 4 of them, including hooves, and no I didn't kill it). The shade is one of those cool fiberglass(?) 50s ones with a pine needle flower motif. It's a good life here on the mountain with the occasional howl of a coyote to break the sweet night air.