Real Winter

Yesterday I took the horse to my friend Karen's place for our weekly Tuesday morning group ride over hill and dale. The sky was grey and thick and it was bitterly cold. We mounted up, and the dog was left behind in the trailer to wait this ride out as there were a couple of excitable babies (baby horses-- sometimes called "greenies") in our group of six. We trotted away from the barn and all the horses felt as though they might explode; they snorted across Pony Creek and up the hill to the big field full of holes where a house will be built soon. Full of anticipation and joy at being out.

The snow came slowly at first ("Nothing but flurries!" said George) but soon big wet flakes came quickly, blown horizontally by the wind. Little mounds of frozen white built up on the brims of our hats and in the soft spot between my horse's wither and the saddle pad. Moving through, it seemed as though the wind was swirling us along with the snow.

Then Karen's hearty laugh from behind me, "I can't see anything!"

"Me neither!" Snowflakes burning in my eyes.

"I'm just looking down at my pony's withers and trusting him to guide me home."

"Me, too." The horse tossing his head like he's carrying the queen through that snow. Proud and full of hot air, prancing along.

When we got back to the barn everything was coated in thin and airy snow and the dirt roads were beginning to turn white (I love it when that happens). I let the dog out of the trailer-- he always looks a little yellow against that white white-- and we jumped in the truck and drove the horse home.

When I got back to my home, there was not a spot of snow on the ground. It was like the ride in the snow never happened, but for my chapped face and lips. The snow may not have changed the day at my house, but it did make me feel like hunkering down and getting some quilting done. So, although it took me a while to get here, I present block 6 of the quilt-along. I'm really digging the batiks in these two, especially the smaller squares in the block on the right. *By the way, that Grady photo at the top was taken last February, but you get the idea. I hope we get some truly snowy days like that this year!