2010: The Year of Lucy Fur

Looking back and taking stock of 2010, it seems every memory involves some antic of my sweet faced Beagle, Lucy Fur: the canine spawn of Satan.  Within days of adopting her as a puppy, I realized she would never be an old dog, but she would be a happy dog for every day of her life.  In her third year, she left many marks as evidence of this theory.

Anyone who has seen Lucy tearing, leaping and bounding through the snow, green grass or woods can not help but understand true pleasure.  Her frantic yelping after a new scent is the very definition of pure passion.  When Lucy bestows her friendship upon a person, they wear it like a knighthood.

As Lucy's custodian, I battle for the balance of keeping her safe and allowing her the independence to be the happiest dog alive.  How well do I succeed?  Well, lets see...

Lucy wakes up around noon and crawls out from under the microsuede throw and goose down duvet on her queen sized bed.

Lucy maims another Rope Toy before...

...taking a nap.

Quite refreshed, Lucy plays with [terrorizes] Tinkerbell...

and practices her carriage dog skills.

Practice makes Lucy Fur-fect in the Picnic Class at VLCC.

"What a well trained* Beagle!"  [* see: bribed]

A true lover of music, Lucy attends raptly to Debbie Knoll's picnic class recital...

[Busted by Lori Schoenhard's lens.]

And finally,

 Lucy guards the dreams of sleeping nephew.

What does Lucy have to say about all this?  "Woowoo!" of course.  Happy New Year.  Woowoowoo.

Kind Regards,

Michelle Blackler

Serendipity

www.hossbiz.com

Serendipity is an Accidental Sagacity Corporation company.

The Hatred of Mowing and Shoveling

I used to hate mowing my lawn.  Until it started snowing.  Then I hated shoveling my driveway.  Until is was 95 degrees and the humidity was 85% and I was mowing my lawn.  Then one day, I took pride in making patterns in the lawn.  It looked lovely.  When it snowed, I remembered how I loved to play in it as a child.  So, I decided that shoveling snow was playing in the snow.

I stopped hating both mowing the lawn and shoveling snow.

The added bonus is that mowing in oppressive heat and humidity and shoveling snow in sub zero temperatures is awfully brilliant exercise.  No expensive gym memberships for me, no!  Just my trusty Lawn Boy and my Bog Boots and I can feel the burn of calories.

Real life exercise.  You've got to love that.

Here is Red Green demonstrating another great byproduct of the lawn mower:


And a tutorial on shoveling snow, that is informative and entertaining...


Kind Regards,
Michelle Blackler
Serendipity
www.hossbiz.com
Serendipity is an Accidental Sagacity Corporation company.

If Eliza Doolittle Had Bog Boots, Wouldn't It Be Loverly?

Carriage Driving Gloves

When it comes to gloves for work or play, you need the right gloves for the job.  It is so difficult to find good carriage driving show gloves: they are too bulky, the seams get in the way, they are hot, the leather is either too coarse or too flimsy.  So In search of the best carriage driving show gloves...

I have worn a pair of Banana Republic driving gloves for years and I love them.  They are super light which gives me a better feel of the lines, plus they are cooler than any other glove I've ever tried.  To top it off, they are very stylish.  Remember, with leather, you get what you pay for.  Another tip: you want the glove to fit snugly, so try on lots of gloves and find your average size.  With driving gloves, look at the area across the back or palm of the hand and compare it to the wrist.  Look at your hand and compare it to the photos.  More expensive gloves are more contoured.

Here is a good selection of moderately priced gloves:
http://www.leatherglovesonline.com/np/MensGloves-ByStyle-Driving.htm
http://www.leatherglovesonline.com/np/WomensGloves-ByStyle-Driving-ed4010.htm#page=details

Maybe automobile driving gloves are not to your taste.  You want something classic?  Stop by Dents, purveyors of fine leather gloves since 1777 as well as the current sovereign's coronation gloves.  They have a good review of glove leathers and grades that is quite enlightening.  For instance, did you know that the finest gloving leather comes from wild hogs in South America?  Peccary, hairsheep or deerskin, Dents is a fascinating cybershop:
http://www.dents.co.uk/pages/Leather%20Gloves.asp

Closer to home for the chaps is Paul Stuart, Chicago, who also offers a gorgeous peccary glove...http://www.paulstuart.com/product_info.cfm?ProdID=4632&ProdCatId=1003&MainCatId=14&HEADERMENUID=1&SUBPRODCATID=0

Finally, if you are like me and want it all: there are super sexy peccary driving gloves.  Ines is the place for both sexes, and has all kinds of other gloves that have nothing to do with driving that are worth a look...
http://www.inesgloves.com/articlesid/31633/languageiso/EN/SHOP/Detail/My_special_Peccary_Driving_Gloves.htm

So, if the glove fits, buy it.

Kind Regards,
Michelle Blackler
Serendipity
www.hossbiz.com
Serendipity is an Accidental Sagacity Corporation company.

Cornucopia of Gratitude

My Sister, My Brother & Me, Thanksgiving 09

My sister asked me yesterday if I would be with her in the delivery room for the birth of her baby in February.  I got all lightheaded, nauseous and faint.  I told my dear, darling, precious sister that I couldn't even be in the barn when the mares foaled and instructed that my job began when the afterbirth was removed.  "Oh," she laughed. "I forgot about that. Never mind."  But I was more than pleased to be invited to witness this blessed, event, even though my tolerance for other people's pain is expressed with my head between my knees.

This Thanksgiving, my sister will not be allowed to handle any of my kitchen knives: she once cut her finger badly with my rapier paring knife and I nearly fainted.  Someone asked, "Should we take her to the ER?" And my sister replied, "No, she'll stop hyperventilating once the blood is cleaned up."

Wit is ever plentiful when my family gathers in/crams into my house for holidays.  My brother will announce that he is really not going to take anyone to the emergency room that day.  Clumsiness resulting in medical attention also runs in the family.  The food will be divine and our faces will be tired from smiling and laughing.  Even discussing religion and politics seldom can mar the conviviality of our feast.

My little house will be full to the eaves with my nephews laughing, screaming, beating on each other, the smell of roasting turkey and all the homemade fixins, my aunt's Corn Thang [the only thing the grown children might fight over], her woes about the impending apocalypse of economy, weather or society in general, the entire contents of my sister in laws's 2 fridges transported from Chicago: just in case, you never know, we might, run out of food, Lucy playing with the boys and then somewhere about six pm on Saturday becoming nephew over-saturated, seeking refuge under everyone's feet, add to that some horse riding for the boys, maybe a carriage drive, too and I simply can not wait.  I love it all.

I'm not sure how we concocted to not be stressed, or fall fowl of the typical family holiday traumas.  Somehow, we've got the recipe just right.  Next year, we'll add a little more whipped cream on top with the addition of a baby.  That my sister will produce without any help from me.  Thank God.

Wishing you bountiful gratitude and kind regards,
Michelle Blackler
Serendipity
www.hossbiz.com
Serendipity is an Accidental Sagacity Corporation company.

Whitmorr Topaz

Villa Louis Carriage Classic Novice Driver Champion, 1999

Trail Ride

With Jennifer Steensen

Whitmorr Topaz became a part of the family when she was a 2 year old.  It took my mother that long to find her.  Bob Riley and my mother spent two years looking for a horse to suit my mother's idea of a show horse and broodmare.  They looked at lots of horses in lots of states.  It was a good thing Bob was patient and loved to travel.  My mother was picky.

My mother came close to buying several times, but Bob always vetoed her for some reason.  Usually it was for some conformation reason, after all, that was why he was there: to help my mother find the best possible horse.  If I remember correctly, mother was going to buy a mare that they both agreed on, but...Bob wanted to go one last place, so they headed off to Whitmorr Farm and came back with Topaz.  Bob was tickled.  Mother was happy with the filly, even if she wasn't as showy as the other mare.  She trusted Bob.

Well, as with most things, Bob was right.  Topaz performed admirably in the show ring.  She never misbehaved or gave my mother one iota of trouble and I know that was Bob's first priority in helping find Topaz.  But it was as a broodmare that Topaz performed at the highest capacity.  She produced six wonderful foals including my own beloved Major, Don Pecos and Ace.

Then, of course, there are the dreams, many of which were born on her back.  She gave Jennifer Steensen her first ride.  She taught many little girls to ride with poise.  She inspired a therapeutic horseback riding program.  She gave me my first carriage driving championship, wowing the crowd with her ability to defy gravity and float around the arena.

Topaz had a big, forward way of going which disguised her 14.2 hands.  Her stature disguised the largess of her heart.  Not a day of her life was spent outside her aura of loveliness.  She gave us her service with sentience, grace, nary a demand nor protest.

This morning, she walked through the last gate of this world, leaving the paddock of my life emptier because she's gone, but richer because she was here.

"Warm summer sun shine kindly here.  Warm summer wind blow softly here.  "Green sod above lie light, lie light.  Good night, dear heart, good night, good night." Mark Twain

Kind Regards,

Michelle Blackler

Serendipity

www.hossbiz.com

Serendipity is an Accidental Sagacity Corporation company.

Winter Closes In: Hibernating With Carriage Driving Fodder

With colder weather on its way and Christmas coming up, I thought I'd alert you to some reading material.  Any carriage driving enthusiast should read the following historical books: A Manual of Coaching by Fairman Rogers, Driving For Pleasure by Francis T. Underhill, Driving by the Duke of Beaufort, The Private Stable by James Albert Garland and Driving As I Found It by Frank Swales.  All are still as relevant as Shakespeare.  Santa might have to dig a little to find them, but Amazon and ebay are enterprising elves.  Original copies will set you back one to several hundred dollars, but they are all worth holding in your hand.  Reprints are he next best thing, but try not to buy the photocopied paperbacks.  The quality is awful and disrespectful to these grand books.  You can find several of them available for download, which is nice but there is nothing like leafing through the pages of these historical tomes.

For the grandkids, Sue Greenall's Animal Lovers' Bed Time Reader or her latest, Animal Lovers' Bedtime Stories.  These are lovely books to encourage and inspire children to have animals as important elements of their lives.

If it is audio visual material that you need to inspire 2011 carriage driving plans, check out anything by Tim Maloy available for purchase online at: http://www.cavewoodproductions.co.uk/store.html If you aren't familiar with Tim's name, do a search on this blog and view some of his excellent video shorts.  World Four In Hand Championships 2002 from Jarez is available on VHS from Driving Essentials and is excellent.  I have not see the Aachen 2006 Championships yet [ehem, Santa], but I'm sure it is equally as thrilling.  You can order that online through: http://www.aachen2006.de/HighlightDVD_e.htm

Search Amazon.com for carriage driving

Kind Regards,
Michelle Blackler
Serendipity
www.hossbiz.com
Serendipity is an Accidental Sagacity Corporation company.