New Friends

Today at lunch, my co-worker Rod took me up to the ranch where he boards his three horses. I am as crazy about horses as I am about cats and crochet. But how could you not love animals that are this beautiful?

Ashkii & Pasaali

Ashkii is the baby of the family and is half Percheron / half quarter horse. He's like a big puppy. Pasaali is a Paint and is blind in his left eye. That doesn't stop him from racing around and Rod is able to ride him with no problem. Of course Rod has been riding for 8 million years. If I got on him, I'd be lucky to make it around the arena.

Lio

Lio is an off the track Thoroughbred. He was purchased from Thoroughbred Friends in Woodland, which is a Thoroughbred rescue run by my friend, Joe. A lot of people get caught up in the glamor of horse racing but don't realize what happens once the race horse is no longer able to compete. More often than not, he's sold to "the killers", loaded onto a truck and hauled down to Texas. There he's slaughtered to help fulfill the horse meat demand in Europe. Thankfully there are people like Joe around who buy these horses before they get on the truck and then re-sell them to loving homes. OK, I'll get off my soapbox now.

Have you ever owned one of these?

Kitchen Witch

I had one for many years but then she got misplaced in a move. You hang one in your kitchen to prevent cookies from burning and other assorted baking mishaps. And frankly, I'm in dire need of a kitchen witch right now because let me tell you ladies, I am the Titanic of baking these days. It started with the oatmeal raisin cookies that were rated "Excellent" by 3 million people on Allrecipes.com and tasted like sawdust to me. Then we had the disastrous chocolate chip cookies with the liquid/dry ingredient relationship problem. These were followed by a batch of muffins that I would be hard pressed to decide which was worse, their smell or their taste. Last night I decided to make a loaf of lemon bread. Half of it is still in the loaf pan. The top half came out quite nicely though.

It's "MADE IN CANADA" contest time again! Oh but first, a small note. Wendy, who won the last contest, could you please e-mail me your snail mail address so I can put your yarn in the mail. My addy is Sakkasie@hotmail.com. Thank you. OK, so this week I have been tormenting you with pictures of flowers. So today's question is - "What is the provincial flower of my home province, British Columbia?" Once again, if you've won in the last four weeks (or four questions, you get the idea) please refrain from answering. Post your correct answer in the blog. I don't know what the prize will be but since I left my digital camera at work today it's not like I could take a picture of it anyway. Good luck!

Because I'm trying desperately to get Renee's scarf finished and in the mail by the weekend I have no craft content this evening. Instead, here's a picture of my Mom's *slightly* overweight cat, Bubbie.