Thursday, March 2, 2017
Can’t believe it’s March already.
Historically, February is the month I have strong urges to re-arrange furniture. Hang wallpaper. Take down wallpaper and paint. Go to Hawaii. So the last item is off my list, as any urge I ever had to travel is gone, but the other urges hit me harder this year than in the last couple. I think it’s just the time of year when everyone is tired of winter, the short days, the unwelcome late snowfalls–I guess it’s cabin fever.
I finally got my new ensuite finished up. The drywaller did such a poor job it would have required major patching and sanding to look decent. I did try painting over it, but it was a mess. I know wallpaper hasn’t been popular likely for a decade or more, but Lowe’s is stocking it again! So I just papered over the mess. What a transformation! I’m loving it!
In fact, I loved it so much, I decided to paper the other bathroom, too. Nice! Until I looked at the medicine cabinet and decided to replace it. Easier to paper with it gone, anyway. So, justified. Then I looked at the vanity and thought, you know, I’ve never really liked that thing, either…You see where I’m going with this. Now I’m waiting for the new vanity I ordered from Home Depot to arrive. I’ll worry about how to get the old one out and the new one in when it comes. It’s the modern type that looks like a piece of furniture, so the wall behind needs to be papered, too. I can’t do that until the old vanity goes so wallpapering is also on a back burner. Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow.
So I’m back at my desk with an hour or so before I plan to go up and clean stalls. I thought I’d check in and update this, and introduce the Horses of Idyllbeck.
Coming toward me is Caprice. I’ve had her since she was five, and she’ll be 21 in October. She was born at a horse show because her owners didn’t know her mom was pregnant. An accident, obviously, what the farmers used to call a “catch colt”. It wasn’t that uncommon back in the day, when horses were used for work all spring and summer, and then turned out (basically to fend for themselves) in the fall. But you wouldn’t think such a thing could happen, the way horses are kept now.
Through DNA testing it was determined her sire was Inca, a Dutch dressage horse. We already knew her dam was a Trakehner/Appaloosa cross. So she’s quite a mixture and definitely has a good diverse gene pool.
Her Trakehner grandsire, Falco, was an Atco Cup winner so you might think Caprice would be itching to jump. You’d be wrong. She doesn’t even like cavaletti and if they’re the type that fall apart, she just plows through them as soon as she figures that out. It’s okay with me, I’d rather she didn’t jump anyway.
She was a nice size, just a hair under 16.2 and big bodied. Now that she’s laid off and getting older, she’s shrinking, though. She looks very small standing next to Nakida, although they started off the same height. She’s sweet, quiet, and tries very hard to please. Unfortunately, despite such a great mixture of genes and good big feet, she’s had chronic front end lameness. Times she’s been unrideable because of it gradually lasted longer and longer until finally I just retired her. Giving her a retirement home is one of the reasons I moved out of the city.
The horse in the middle is Farzana. She’s a Westphalian sired by Freestyle and the “teenager” of our little herd, five years old in this photo. She’s my sister Lorna’s horse, a big girl, 17 hands, and definitely a challenge as she is too smart by half. We’ve had to modify all the gate and door latches. She is very Alpha, and definitely the boss. Probably a good thing for Caprice, as otherwise she’d get no exercise at all and would just stand by the gate all day waiting to be let back in the barn for dinner.
The horse on the right is Nakida. She’s also Lorna’s, but with Lorna needing to spend her available riding time on her youngster, Nakida has been passed to me. She’s sired by Dutch stallion Ebony, and her mom was a TB. Besides being beautiful to look at, she’s sweet and gentle, very well trained, and a lovely mover besides. I’m so lucky to have her to ride.
***
Besides wallpapering, I’ve been spending a lot of time writing. I’ve finished up a couple of short stories, and I’m currently working on another mystery/thriller. I’m at the 10,000 word mark and not sure whether it’s going to be another novel-length like The Pillerton Secret or if it’ll fall into the novella pile.
Right now it’s titled The Real Thing. I don’t like the title, though, and hopefully something better will come to me in time. Here is a very early first draft of one of my favourite passages:
They sit quiet again. Dallas scratches the back of his head vigorously. Then says: “So how do we cull? Ship some of them old mares?”
“Absolutely not! Those old girls gave us dozens of beautiful babies ‘n’ this is their home. I won’t put them through the hell of being shipped fer a few bucks. We talked about that. Wouldn’t come near to enough bucks anyway.”
“I know. Just throwin’ it out there.”
“Yeah, tryin’ to get a rise outta me.”
“It worked.”
“Never quit bein’ the pain in the ass little brother, do you.” A humourless grin flashes across his face.
“So, what is your idea of a cull?”
“Hmm.” Denver laces his fingers together behind his head, leans back and swivel rocks in the high-backed office chair. Looks out the window. On the road across the valley he sees Old Man Halbe, miniature in the distance, back hunched, heading to the mailboxes, his Heinz 57 shuffling along behind. It’s their daily outing, half a kilometer each way, even though Mr. Halbe is nearing ninety, and Cisco the fifth is the same in dog years. Something about the familiar routine is beautiful and sad at the same time. He breathes a big sigh. Pours another Chivas. “I’ll have to shoot them, I guess. That way at least the wildlife rescue can use the meat.”
I’ve been submitting stories here and there, no nibbles yet though. I got some positive feedback from a publisher I submitted The Pillerton Secret to. He took the time to email me saying they don’t publish mysteries, but he liked the writing and was drawn into the story, up until it became obvious it was going to be a thriller. Which is definitely outside of their scope. I’m struggling to find a publisher of thrillers. Harder than I thought, given their popularity. Maybe it’s an agent I really need to look for.
Meanwhile, I would really love to connect with some beta readers. Anyone interested? What it involves is for you to read advance copies and provide insights. This would be particularly useful if some teenagers would agree to look at a couple of YA stories I have.
Siebert out (mic drop).