Time is shrinking and so am I....

Six days until I fly away. Edits to 50 Five Minute Fixes have to be completed and manuscript sent back the to the publisher before I go. Spent all day today sitting at the kitchen counter working on the document. Tomorrow I meet with my illustrator to make changes to some of the drawings. She has to finish them while I am away. Printed out the manuscript tonight to go through the referencing - over 200 pages!

Sometimes I feel like I am falling into my computer. I feel like I no longer have a body, I am just fingers on the keyboard and a brain of words. Here I am working at home. See how much this is affecting me? Fortunately I got out for a ride on Al so that I remembered have a body too.

And yes, I am a Mac person.....

How many rain drops are there in a storm?

The rains from California finally traveled 2000 miles to the east coast. The storm arrived last night in the evening, around 7pm. It rained all night and was basically over by around 8AM. In that time it dumped between 1 and 4 inches of rain depending on what part of the county you live in.

For us it wasn't too bad, well for me I should say. Brad woke up at 5AM to the sound of water doing something it shouldn't - not going down the drain pipe. He got up and found that the water that should have gone down the drain was instead running under the basement door into the basement - fortunately NOT on the side where he has been spackling and painting.

He spent the next 3 hours digging a diversion ditch and getting the water out of the basement. By the time I showed up he was pretty much finished.

I didn't leave home until around 1:30PM. By then the temps were in the 60's the sky was blue and we did not get the wind so it was quite lovely. As I drove around I saw the tell-tale signs of flooding everywhere. The mud over the road just down from our driveway, the debris on the bridge out of town where the river had flowed over the deck, the rivers in the fields that normally are dry. The road to my friends house was river - she sent photos and it was clear they would not be driving down it today. VDOT has been there making repairs so they should be able to get out tomorrow. Just about everywhere in the county you could see that water had done something pretty incredible.

Where my horse's live the property has two rivers as boundary lines. I drove down to the bridge where the river crosses the road and then goes along the edge of her property. It was a a large river and lake as far as I could see. I haven't checked to find out how much of the rest of the property is flooded but I am sure she will have photos.

So now the storm has moved on to New England leaving more flooding in its wake. I began to think about all this rain and a 2000 mile journey and I got to wondering just how many rain drops were up in that storm. How many gallons of rain did it drop? How in the world could a storm carry 4 inches of rain to Virginia when it had already been raining along the way. No idea - but the idea was something for me to ponder today.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring. They are calling for more snow by the weekend.

Where have the days gone?

I just realized I haven't posted a blog since Wednesday and this is Saturday. Where have the days gone? Thursday was catching up in the office. Friday was spending the day working on my book and a ride on Al in the afternoon. Andy stands at the gate these days and looks on. He isn't so much interested in being ridden as he is in getting a treat when I bring Al back to the field.

Today and tomorrow I am teaching at Morven Park Equestrian Center in Leesburg, VA. I brought Al up there this morning so he can have a change of scenery. We went for a ride around the property and a little in bit in the arena. He is doing a sleep over with his friends and then I will bring him home on Sunday. It is so nice to be able to ride in the indoor arena there, a huge space and flat ground!

Brad and I are frantically organizing for Africa. Shoe laces, seeds, getting 1/2 chaps fixed, checking out cameras and making sure we have enough SD cards..... All the little items vital to the trip. Brad drove in to DC to get his visa yesterday. Parked on a side street, walked in, handed them the paperwork and left. So smooth. Why couldn't it have been like that for me?

I did get my passport back so that's good.

Izzy is happy to have me home tonight in time for evening snuggles. I am trying to break the news to her that I will be gone for a month. She is not listening....

Odds and Ends

Samawati House is fully booked - bummer.

Next idea - Msambweni House, still on the beach in Lamu...

Will have to wait and see what happens there.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

Weather turned cloudy and damp. But at least I can still ride!

Always a good day when I get to ride Al no matter what else happens.

Brad is making progress on the room downstairs. He has the dry wall up and is now

doing the spackling. Progress being made there!

Trying to sort out my teaching schedule for the year. Need to get it done before I leave.

Big sigh.

Going through the packing list for Kenya. Don't have to get too many things since I still have all my stuff from last time. Haven't really worn the clothes. I doubt they will wear out at this rate. I guess I am going to look 'the same' year after year, safari after safari. OK, so that means I am will be timeless on the Mara.

Working on the edits for 50 Five Minute Fixes. Also has to be done before I leave. So why am I typing a blog instead of working on my book??? I need a break once in a while!

Decisions, decisions....

I will be arriving in Nairobi on Feb 15th but the safari doesn't start until the 20th. That's because I am heading to Germany first for a Feldenkrais training with Mia Segal the 4 - 14th. Since I am going to be there early we decided Brad should join me, I wouldn't want to be lonely! The next question is what to do with 4 days in Kenya???

Last time we spent a couple of days in Nairobi so we don't really want to spend all of our time there again. I decided to asked Mary Robinson, long time traveler to Kenya and organizer of all my safaris, what to do. She came up with two suggestions: spend time near a salt lick or go to the beach. Beach?? Wow! Didn't know that was an option. We are definitely leaning towards the water!

In case you haven't noticed when I book a clinic I don't really check out where I am going. I just show up. That's how I wound up in Finland - I was heading to Holland and they asked me to give a clinic outside of Helsinki. Needless to say I didn't look at a map to learn that Finland is well north and east! I found out soon enough when the time zone changed on the flight. That changed my perspective on where I was going.

So why would a trip to Africa be any different? You know, book a ticket to the recommended airport and show up. Get in a vehicle and sleep (well not on Kenyan roads) and you are there. Of course I wouldn't even think that Kenya has beaches since last time we climbed up the rim of the Rift Valley, to the Masai Mara, over 5000 ft. When I think of Kenya I think of lions, giraffes, hippos, Thompson's gazelles and Maasi warriors. But it seems there are also beaches, sand, palm trees and fresh fish.

Brad really likes the idea of laying back in a lovely little place called Samawati near Lamu. The advertising says 'Lamu is such a totally laid-back place that your natural instinct is to do nothing at all'. Sounds like a plan to me.

Let's hope they aren't booked.....

What a wonderful day!

Today it warmed up into the 50's AND it was above freezing in the morning when I got up for the first time since... well I am not sure when. Perhaps before the snow storm? What a wonderful feeling not to have to put on long underwear all day!

Went to the barn first thing and got in a ride on Al before spending the rest of the day in the office. At least I have a great window to look out of so I can watch the snow melt.

My book came back from the Publisher yesterday and now it is my time to answer questions, clarify points and generally clean up anything she questioned. I have to get it done before I leave for Germany Feb 2nd. Oh it is going to get crazy around her these next two weeks......

Well at least I have begun packing instead of waiting until the night before like I usually do.

Oh and I got an email from a friend in Finland. It is going to be -25C there tomorrow. Sure does put our temps in perspective.

Celebration of Bruce's life

Last night there was a gathering of friends to celebrate Bruce Gerrish, who died tragically Dec 13. No one knows exactly how it happened. He was found in the barn apparently kicked in the chest.

Over the past year Bruce would hunt Al for me to get him introduced to the sport. I brought my camera in hopes of getting some good pictures of Al. Little did I know it would be Bruce that mattered in the pictures.

After his death I sat down at my Mac and put together a book of photos using iPhoto. It was quite simple really, expect for looking at Bruce so many times. At first it was painful but then I was grateful that I had taken so many pictures. After sorting out the bad ones I had over 400.

I then made a slide show of the photos using the Ken Burns effect where the photos seem to move a bit like video. I weeded down to about 170 shots and adjusted them to fit the screen. It was painstaking work but in the end I had a slide show of the best of the photos.

Last night Brad and I took the computer and a good-sized screen to the Old Dominion Hunt where the celebration was held. We set the screen up in one room and started the slide show. The went to find Vanessa, Bruce's wife, to give her the photo book. There were a lot of people there and someone else had printed off some of his photos of Bruce, which were hung on the dining room wall.

I watched as people drifted in to look at the slide show. Many people stood for quite awhile to watch. Some recognized themselves in a photo or two. Then one person was really moved by the pictures. I didn't realize it at the time but it was Bruce's sister.

I went to speak to her and give her a hug, beside her was Bruce's mother. I had no idea his family would travel from all over to come to this evening. I had no idea how these photos would touch people. I knew I wanted to share them, that's all. I realize now how fortunate it was that I brought my camera with me every time Al when hunting with Bruce.

The evening wound down and we packed up the equipment. I am going to send discs with the photos to Bruce's relatives so that have some recent photos to remember him by. I am so glad to be able to do that small thing for them.

I think I will carry my camera more often. You never know when life will present itself or how things are going to turn out.

Contrasts

Feet on frozen ground

Face in warm sunshine

Chaos in a small country

While I listen to birds sing

Kenya Embassy - Round 2

Got up, took care of a few things and headed for the Kenya Embassy in DC. Really easy drive, hit almost all the lights green. Congestion in city so took alternate route suggested by iPhone. 12:45pm, still plenty of time. Got turned around (lots of one-way streets) but finally got there. But.....

No parking places so went around block. Not really a block since roads at angles and traffic circles everywhere. Not like NYC where roads are in straight lines. OK back at Embassy, find parking space right across the street. 1:05 pm, still time.

Walk through outside door to inner door which is locked. Locked? Sign on door said visa office open 9:30am - 1:00pm. 1:00pm?? Building sign says 1:30pm. Woman on phone at Embassy yesterday said 1:30pm. What do you mean 1:00pm?

Door has glass window. Kenyan woman standing on other side. OK, tell woman that the closing time on the building says 1:30pm. She looks at me blankly. Try to explain this is my second day driving into DC to get my visa, that I have driven 1.5 hours to get there. She looks at me blankly. That I have all my papers...

Woman stares at me. I continue to explain until suddenly I realize I am not succeeding and I am going to have to drive into the city again tomorrow. Panic sets in. Now more agitated I begin waving arms and talking more frantically, definitely getting desperate and ....

Suddenly woman realizes I am about to have a melt down. She comes to door and tells me to slip my envelope under the door. It fit easily. She picks it up and invites me in, introduces herself, and offers me a drink of water. Quickly she looks through envelope, sees all necessary papers and says everything is there. Visa will be mailed. I was out the door and on back in my car. Phew!

Driving home (exiting city through Georgetown again) watch a red tail hawk swoop down over two lanes of traffic on Route 66 to snag a mouse. He switches mouse from beak to talons and flies away. Simple, clean and swift. Wouldn't it be nice if life was that clear?

Got to the farm in time to ride Al. He gave me his first clean walk/canter transition. We had been working on it before the weather got bad but never quite got it. Made my day!

Note to self: Next time book flight in time to mail visa application to Kenya Embassy.

Kenya Embassy - Round 1

My departure date is fast approaching... Feb 2nd to be exact. I am heading off to Germany for Feldenkrais Training then on to Kenya for Horseback Safari. This means that I have to get everything organized for both trips. Packing is going to be so much fun!

Finally booked my flight. Now have to get a visa to enter Kenya. First step, go to website and find out they have changed the system since last time. Next, fill out on-line application and fight with date boxes that want to blow out the web page. Decide I had better expedite visa as website says it will take 14 days - not good because I have to leave my passport WITH them while they process my visa.

Call Embassy and make sure I can make out one money order for both processing fee $25.00 and expediting fee $20.00 for a total of $45.00. Tell woman I am going to DRIVE my visa application to the Embassy today so I can get passport back sooner. No problem. Next print visa application and sign. Now get a money order and return paid envelope. Sooo...

Off to the Post Office for money order and Express Mail Overnight Delivery prepaid envelope. Hummm..... don't think I have ever purchased a money order before. OK got that sorted out. Now envelope... Put my address as both sender and receiver, that way if it gets returned it will still come to me. Write down tracking number as I can't remove the senders sheet since I am not actually sending it to myself. With the help of very nice Postmistress that is all sorted out.

Next off to Washington DC to deliver passport, application, flight details (which I had already printed out), money order and postage paid return envelope to the Kenya Embassy on "R" Street near DuPont Circle. Traffic not too bad, Googled directions and sent to my iPhone so I could find the place, parked in the driveway of the Embassy - yes you can drive right up -no security guards or streets blocked off, got out of the car and.....

Read the sign on the wall outside the Embassy:

Visa Office Hours 9:30am - 1:30pm.

Time now 3:00pm. To be sure looked up the Kenya Embassy website on iPhone and called. Yes, hours are 9:30pm to 1:30pm. Would have been nice if the woman I spoke to on phone this morning told me that when I said I was going to DRIVE to the Embassy to deliver my paperwork....

Got in car, drove through Georgetown to get out of city. Wondered to self why the only way I know how to get out of DC is to drive through Georgetown. No answer. Crossed bridge into Virginia, got on Route 66 West. Sat in traffic until past the beltway. Stopped at Wholefoods (where Emeril does his shows) to pick up a few things. Drove home.

Tomorrow drive to DC to the Kenya Embassy.....

Note to self: Get there before 1:30pm.

No More News

I used to get up in the morning, make myself a cup of coffee and sit down at the laptop to catch up on the news. There are always stories about murder, rape, terrorism, death and destruction. I would skim the usual websites and of course check out the weather but in the end there is little to read in the way of good news. And it isn't like I can do anything about that other stuff.

What a way to start the day.

Lately though I have found myself just briefly checking the headlines and then heading off to my Facebook page and Blog. I NEVER thought that this social networking thing would interest me. I guess I was wrong. I find now I can start the day with checking on friends, looking for something interesting to put up on my Fans page and write a little something that's happening in my life with my morning coffee.

What a way to start the day!

Lure Coursing

While Brad painted the ceiling downstairs I went to watch the annual Lure Coursing event held just down the road from where my horses live. On Friday I had ridden past the field where the event was held and I couldn't help but notice it was covered in snow!

I ask my friend who was bringing his dog about whether they would be running on snow and he assured me they would be - and they did!

Some of the dogs weren't too interested in the idea but there were a few that really enjoyed it.

I have uploaded some photos on my Facebook page if you want to check them out. I really enjoyed the whippet. She really was pleased with herself when she caught the lure.

After the coursing everyone retired to the organizer's home down the road. The roast venison and venison meat balls were fantastic!

Winter projects

We are finally getting around to finishing off a portion of the basement for an entertainment/office area. When the TV moves downstairs we will actually have a dining room! That means no more entertaining around the kitchen island anymore,. . . . . . . once we find a dining room table.

I am not sure how Izzy is going to deal with the idea since the couch in the dining room is her playground. Every morning she dives amongst the pillows, begs us to play with her feather toy under the blanket on the corner of the couch and spends most of her mid-morning time sleeping on the couch. I guess she is just going to have to find another place to play and sleep. In the mean time the downstairs isn't done yet so we don't have to face that issue right now.

We are going to put in a radiant floor downstairs for heat. It is about 52 degrees down there this morning. That's a bit chilly for my blood. Brad has already laid the warm-board subfloor and we are going to install solar hot water panel on the roof to heat the water that will circulate in through the tubing in the floor.

At this stage of the game we have gotten the insulation up, the electrical wired in and are almost ready for the dry wall. I am very sensitive so everything has to be healthy products i.e. no formaldehyde or VOC's. We are going to lay an bamboo engineered flooring on top of the warm board (floating floor). Now-a-days these kinds of products are much easier to find.

Brad is going to spray the ceiling black today to make it less noticeable until we put up some kind of a drop ceiling. We don't want to totally close the ceiling up because the first floor is exposed and we are thinking we might put radiant tubing in so that the first floor is also heated.

Living with an engineer means that I am not really involved with this project. Every step is planned, researched, considered and reconsidered before proceeding. As you may already know I have a completely different style. So I go down once in a while to check on the progress or go to Home Depot to pick up supplies and other than that I stay where it's warm by the fire often with a 7 lb fur ball on my lap.

Is it warmer out there?

Last night we got a dusting of snow. The wind is already rearranging it this morning.

The sun is trying to come out but the temps have taken another nose dive for the weekend.

As the snow swirls around the back door the blue jays are trying to stay on the ground long enough to eat the sunflower seed. No worries about the bear coming around to eat the seed this year! I am sure they are snug in their dens with these temps. The cat has already made a foray to the end of the deck and decided this is not a good day. She is back on the couch waiting for spring.

No wind and 10 degrees warmer would seem like heaven right now but we are not going to see that until Monday. But I did get to ride yesterday! The arena was fine where Brad had plowed off the snow. It was still icy where he hadn't so plowing really did make a difference. I had about 3/4ths of the arena to ride in, which was enough to sooth my soul.

And it seems I am not the only one wanting to escape from this cold winter weather this year.

I found this gelding standing by the cattle guard wistfully looking out while his friends picked on what grass they could find. He looked like he was planning a break out when I caught him in the act.

And this calf was considered a jail break when I discovered her. It didn't take much to foil her plans. A flash from my camera did the job.

I guess with this weather it means an office weekend. I hear my paperwork calling and I can't find any more excuses.

Locavore

Here in Rappahannock County we are fortunate to have an abundance of locally grown food. The nearby CSA (community supported agriculture) is a place called The Farm at Sunnyside. We continue to get fresh vegetables this winter including kale, salad mix and squashes of all sorts. Grass fed beef comes from Joyce Harman. We don't have to worry about e-coli because we know exactly what has happened to the meat and of course the fat profile is much healthier than grain fed.

I don't know if it is because of the farming around here or we like to eat but it seems that our favorite TV shows this winter are cooking shows. The top favorites are Diner, Drive-ins and Dives and Good Eats, but I have to include Emeril Green in their too.

Diners is a favorite because you get to see some really funky places around the country cookiing some outrageous food. I have been to many of the towns he mentions so it is a bit of a travel guide for me. Good Eats is not only funky it is informative. While I am not the cook in the family I have learned a few tips from this show and love the science behind the cooking.

Emeril filmed his show right here in Virginia in the Whole Foods I always stop at on the way home from the airport. We knew he was going to film another season but we weren't exactly sure when. I just happened to walk into the store and there her was! I didn't get an autograph (I am not much into that kind of thing) but I did get a photo.

Emeril really supports the idea of cooking with fresh local products. Personally I thought he and Chef Batali should have gotten a better score in the Iron Chef contest against Chef Flay and White House Chef Comerford, but who am I to judge?

Windy Winter Day

For the past 5 days we have had cold temps and high winds. The weather people are predicting the worst winter in 25 years. So far it looks like their are right. One thing I am really grateful for is the new windows we put in the house not quite 2 years ago. Between that and Brad sorting out the problem with the wood stove, the house stays very comfortable. You can hear the wind howl but at least it is not blowing through the house like it used to! Izzy is grateful too. She sleeps near the wood stove and smiles up at us.

With outdoor conditions what they are I guess I am finally going to have to tackle all those pieces of paper piling up around my desk. Just doesn't look like I can put it off any longer. But isn't that what January is about? Clearing out the old to make way for the new. Maybe that is what the wind is all about too, winds of change.

Maybe if the wind blew across my desk maybe I won't have to deal with all the papers... Maybe if the wind blew through the door I wouldn't have to vacuum... Maybe if I had wings the wind would take me flying... Ah, wishful thinking!

Photo: Frosted cat

Happy Gnu Year!

Shake off the old year.....

and

Bring in the Gnu

Brad took the photo of Al getting up from a roll in the dust.

The camera was at 1/4000 shutter speed so the dust forms an

aura around him and of course his tail is stopped mid shake.

The gnu of course is in the Masai Mara, Kenya from my Sept. 2008 safari to Africa.

I am looking forward to 2010.

In February I start traveling again with a trip to Germany to continue my Feldenkrais training.

From there it's on to Africa for another horseback safari on the Mara.

What a fantastic way to start the year!

Now if I can only get the rest of my calendar sorted out.

Well that is another story.......