July in pictures

Here July is already half over and not a word from me besides my brief little horse story. Thank you all who commented on it, on the by. It was lovely to hear from each of you - your encouragement, your stories, your wishes, and your complements. You gals are some cool beans. I'm sorry I can't answer you individually at the mo., for the reason you've heard very little from me is because my Da has restricted the Interwebs time to the crack of dawn and after the sun sets for the night. This leaves little time for me, and I usually spend it writing the next part of Bristé {almost ready!} if able to use it at all. So. Now for the pictures....

The Fourth was awesome. Our little town's parade is the best -- read: Almost all horses and carriages and old cars. I got to spend half the day with my dearest-friend-who-I-never-get-to-see-because-she-lives-in-Ukraine. So it was a very happy Independence Day.

The summer skies have been magnificent too. Simply stunning every evening.
All my relatives have gone home now, and life has returned to the norm. Mum did get to travel for five days to visit my sister on the East coast... or would it be more South? I don't know. Anyway, she got to go to the beach and bring me back some shells :) I was sure glad when she got back, though. Living with just boys for five days and fixing them supper most nights is not my idea of a good time. Da said it was good 'bonding time'. I bonded a lot in my room with several new library books. Speaking of....

This is my stack that I'm currently reading. Though now I've finished two today, The Twelfth Prophecy, and The Seamstress. On hot days after spending the morning in the garden{which is starting to produce!} it's the best to come into the air conditioned house, grab a glass of ice tea and a new book.

Some super exciting news is that I got a new violin! For my very own! Never used before; made just last year, and hand made in Romania from wood from the Carpathian mountains. Oh yes, and her name is Dido {You have to say it with an accent}, after the tragedy in which Dido throws herself off a cliff. The drama and melancholy matches my violin's tone. I love sad music.

  As of yet I have not taken any photos of my gorgeous instrument {excuse the bragging. I've waited a long time for a professional violin.} but I assure you that they will be forthcoming.

I must end now; my time is already up. But I will try and post again soon about the other interesting things that are happening -- not the least of which my adventures in picking up oil painting again, and more horse tales. Pun intended. 

-Gwyn

*Whew!* The week of stress is over at last!

We did the recital Sunday and... Brother and I were awesome, if I do say so myself. I mean, for pulling it together in three days we were perfect :D Our teacher looked soooooo surprised! She must've been a bit jarred because she gave me a hug! That made it all worth it.

• Made teacher proud  *check*

That's all I asked. :D

I was grinning all over my face the rest of the day. And people kept coming up to me and my brother saying "Good job" and "That was great!"

  That was easily the best recital -- if the most stressful and hard earned.:)


Yesterday, however, was a different story.
  I had a 4-H Public Presentation where you do a demonstration in front of a judge and other 4-Hers. I've done it before so it really didn't faze me; except for the fact I learned I had to do it the morning of. Another surprise! Oh, joy!
  So I crammed together a short demo on how to make a ribbon necklace.
Well, I get there, set up and begin and.... My mind goes completely blank. Nothing. At. All.
   It wasn't like I was nervous or anything -- I felt fine -- but I couldn't remember what the heck I was supposed to say. And the judge just sat there grinning at me. Not helpful.
   Ooooooh, I botched it soooo badly! It was like I'd never done one before -- no, worse. Much worse.

 You all probably know that I'm perfectionist{you could say its my "fatal flaw"} and if you didn't -- I am. So after that disastrous attempt at a demo I was so angry with myself, and still am a bit. Ergggg... It might have been from all the stuff last week and them this coming on so suddenly leaping at me like some deranged tiger... I don't know. But I could have done so-much-better!!! Grrrr!! It makes me so mad!
*breathe*

Ah, well. Today I have nothing ---nothing at all--- to do but work with my Fur-children{horses, dogs, and cat} What could be better? I think that God seriously gave animals therapeutic powers :)

Getting over it ~Gwyn

Happy Belated Saint Patrick's Day!!!! And read about my near nervous breakdown!

I miss yesterday because the weather was.... WONDERFUL! with a capital W!!! I'm talking sunny skies, no clouds, and it got up to 68*!!!! Crazy awesome. I spent most of it outside{of course} and found a poor little wild rabbit trapped underneath the hood of our old junk car. Poor thing's eyes looked like they were about to pop out. Literally. The dogs had had it up in there for who knows how long.
  I pet it a little, trying to coax it to make a break for it, and by Jove, it did! Off like a shot, it leapt over Molly{our lab} who snapped at it in mid-air, leaving a tuft of fluff in the Molly's jaws, and made a mad dash for the rocks way off with the dogs in full pursuit. I guess the Luck o' de Irish was with him for he made it. :) I can't but feel a little proud, saving a fellow creature and all :P

 Then we had a violin recital rehearsal in town. I'm supposed to be playing a duet with my brother{on cello} called Calliope House/Cowboy Jig{you can find it on my Playlist} anyway, very difficult song and I've been working my behind off getting it down. I've got it all except for the timing at the beginning which resolves itself as I go along. Anyway, last week I was supposed to go shopping for a new violin because the one I have now is a student violin and I need a more advanced one with better sound. That didn't happen and so I won't have a good violin for the really high parts on Calliope House and so it won't sound good. Not happy. And on top of that my brother hasn't practiced his part at all before the rehearsal. That in itself really ticked me off. the recital is SUNDAY!!! And when we were supposed to be warming up for the rehearsal he was writing in his part. He hadn't even transposed the second part of the song. I could have torn his head from his shoulders, I can tell you. Then{oh, yes, there's more!} while we're up there on the stage we're barely through eight measures before he tells me to stop playing because he needs to figure out the fingering. By that time I think the flames were spouting from my eyeballs. We, no, HE spent the next twenty minutes figuring out the song with our teacher.
SO, I have a squeaky violin, bad timing, a delinquent brother, and only about two tiny miniscule days to practice with said delinquent brother before we play before a huge audience full to the brim with people we know who I've been {foolishly} telling about this wonderful song and can you tell that I'm a little stressed out right now? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

~Lord, give me patience.~

On a much lighter note, Happy {belated}St. Patrick's day!!!!!! Here's a wee bit o' knowledge from the Emerald Isle

*The Irishman's 10 Commandments *

Thou shalt be loyal to family, friends and faith.
Thou shalt keep thy Irish eyes a-smilin'.
Thou shalt shy away from blarney.
Thou shalt honor thy motherland.
Thou shalt see the Trinity in every shamrock.
Thou shalt halve each potato out of love.
Thou shalt be kind to wee ones everywhere.
Thou shalt be generous with blessings,
song and stories.
Thou shalt follow every rainbow.Thou shalt rest easy in the hollow of God's hand.

~Gwyn

Spring? Not so fast.

This last week has been wonderful weather wise; in the upper forties with the sun shining, melting almost all our snow! There was so much that now the usually dry creek bed behind our house is running - albeit slowly.
I went riding{:D} and even the fetlock deep mud was welcome!
  Spring seemed to be coming timidly back. I saw three robins, one red-wing blackbird, a flicker{relative to the wood pecker} and a European collared dove. And a tiny clump of sprouting grass.
  Yes, well, that was yesterday.
Today I arose and drew back the curtains from my window, ready to greet a new day. But instead of being greeted with the much missed sun{we've had terrible fog all month except for the last few days}it was like winter had started all over again. A foot of snow had fallen in one night. The horrid, horrid fog has returned. The creek is frozen, and there's not a bird in sight.

Today we were supposed to go to the Big City where I would be violin shopping{finely!!!} but now we are under a "Winter Storm Warning: travel not advised". It's supposed to be a big blizzard coming in soon. Well, I should have expected it, I suppose. The calving season started Sunday with a pair of twins.{We don't ranch cows, but we have close fiends who do}. The lambing season is now over, too, the last ewe finally gave birth to a bouncing babe the other day. Looking at the lambs makes me miss my goats a lot. But they're long gone :( I wish Garm at least didn't have to be sent to the meat shop! He was the best goat I ever had!!!!
  maybe I can convince dad to get one or two kids again this summer..... While I'm wishing, I'd like a colt to break this summer too!

  Does anyone else have plans involving a furry friend this summer?

~Gwyn

In which I inform you...

I haven't posted in awhile so I just thought I'd let you know I haven't died or anything :)

  Truth be told, I've been a bit overwhelmed of late. Me and a few other girls from my home school group have at last finished writing/arranging the Shakespeare play "A Midsummer Night's Dream".  Making it kid-friendly and funny. With Shakespeare? After every meeting you come out with the feeling that your brains have been BBQed.
  When I'm waiting in line at the Pearly Gates I hope I meet W. Shakespeare. So I can sock him in the eye.
Aside from that....
  I'm also involved in the musical arrangement of the play. I'm sure that will be fun. Right?
Ah, well. At least my mum's trying to back my brothers into auditioning for parts. *big evil grin* I'm on the judging panel too.

But what is really getting me piqued is in a very few weeks my brother and I are preforming a very difficult Celtic song at a concert and we *just* got the music for it. Ig. O.o
 Oh, speaking of Celtic, Happy March everyone! The longest, blizzardiest{is that a word? I don't think so.}, darkest, boringest, month of the entire year for us living waaaaaaaayy up here *points*. Bleck. But it is the month of the Irish, so that makes it better :) *jigs*
And speaking once again of Irish/Celtic, I found the most amazing Celtic singer!! Her name is Kate Rusby and she-is-fantastic! I love her style, her voice -- everything!! Check her out on Youtube if you like that kind of music ;)

And now I must go feed my darling horses and grab a bite myself before its off to jolly old Youth Orchestra!*through clinched teeth* Where I will sit In the Back Row. With the boys.

Trying to remain sane ~Gwyn

Quick update...

{May I call your attention to my new profile pic? Yes, it is me and Shyanne:)}
Hammie's operation went well. Bill{the vet} said it was a good thing we didn't wait any longer because the ligament was practically gone. O.o Poor baby! I went in Thursday to learn his PT exercizes, and so on. He had to be kept in a kennel for five days to keep him off his leg. That didn't go over well with him, being Corgi/Ausi and all. They said his leg won't be totally healed for about 8 months. That's a very long time for the active guy.
As my absence testifies, I have been extremely busy and still am. Hammie's PT takes up quite a bit of time and my brother and I are very popular this season for playing at churchs'. Too bad this isn't the ideal year for it people! For us anyways. Oh, well. Show must go on and all that.
Remember I mentioned awhile back that I had the flu? It turns out I don't have the flu but worse, there is mold in one of my bedroom walls. Eergh!! I do not need this right now!!
Sunday I was really sick, but couldn't stay home because I had to play 1st violin at two Church services and the Children's Christmas Program. Monday was the second Midnight Mass practice at the Catholic Church. I'm 1st violin there, too. Tonight's another and tomorrow night it's show time! This is the third year we've played at the Catholic's MN Mass. It's like the highlight of our music year; it's the biggest church around; their biggest holiday... so we're very flattered to be asked to play for them every year.{'specially cause we're Lutheran :D} Needless to say though, it's very stressful. There's new music this year, and... Okay I *love* the latin mass and the *beautiful* latin music tunes, but, it is very hard to play! It was originally written for voices alone, which is great!...If you're in the chorus.
With voice you can easily go from a low C to a higher B. But on violin you have to cross two strings. And when you put the C-B in a run O.o
We've got one more practice...<:)

Yesterday hor-frost covered everything in beautiful white spears. Got some awesome photos I'll try and post later on this week. Today we got an almost white-out snowstorm that's hitting most of the US looks like. Fist power out too. Joy.

If I survive tomorrow, I might post...
It's getting dark and I haven't feed my horses yet. So Happy Christmas Eve's eve! If you live some place warm, I envy you. ~Gwyn

I need some chocolate l:'(

Today has got to be one of the worst this year for me.

I woke this morning fresh and semi excited because I was going to get my braces off finely!! 

Well, I get there and they talk like I'll get them off this very am! But then I took some x-rays and two roots aren't quite straight, so, no go. TWO TEETH! 

Not happy.

This afternoon didn't go so bad. We 'winterized' everything outside. Washing the deck, replacing plastic water buckets with rubber ones, cleaning out the yard water tanks and filling them to the rim, draining the summer pasture tanks, etc...

I had to move Cokie and Wilber into one of the yards too, and in the process of opening the gate, my thumb got caught up between the chain and the gate post, and, before I could get it out, Cokie{our biggest, fattest, tallest horse} spooked and ran into the gate smunching my thumb flat D(:) Yaaaooow!!!

Not an hour later I dinged up my left hand pretty bad too. And then found out there was Youth Orchestra tonight. My bow hand's thumb was wrapped in athletic tape and swollen and my string fingers were swathed in vet wrap{it was all there was at the time!} Great.

Well, we end up going even though my brothers hands were cut up too. {a bad day for hand and fingers, eh?} We get there and... no one else does. Y.O. is next week.

Very not happy. Pass the choco, please...

A FULL weekend

After 23 weeks two of our hens have finely started laying! My mum was ecstatic! It was hilarious; she opened the coop door and let out this loud "WHOOOP!!". She never made that noise before! She's usually quite laid back....

Anyway, after that she and I went to town to put my name on my 4-H group's bank account because last month I was elected Treasurer and Secretary. The whole switching over names and info took an hour, and I got to know "June" pretty well.:)

 Along the walls of the bank are big framed pieces of leather with lots of area ranch brands burned into them. I stared at those a lot as June straightened the records. There were some I knew and most I didn't. I tried deciphering them too. Brands are like a whole language of their own: There's the Walking J, a j with little 'feet'. The Triple C, three c's stuck together. The Flying E, or Lazy E, an E on it's back with 'wings'.    And those are just a few...! (the ones I can explain :P) Many of them I couldn't begin to read. A heart on a stick, the odd squiggle-bar-letter, and so on.

{{Can I just say right now that I love living the Western life? Just 'cause I really do! ;)}}

  

  After that it was off with my brother(who plays cello) to play at a special Mass for a friend's parent's anniversary. That went very well and I'm quite happy with my performance, if I do say so myself:) Yeah, I really enjoyed it :)

Sunday was the big violin concert. The very one I have been dreading. The one where... the Youth Orchestra plays! Ahhh! We were soooo not ready...! And yet... by some miracle we pulled together at literally the last second and sounded fine! Whoo! God is great!! I had been worrying a bit. Just a bit. O.o How fruitless it was! And I'm glad it was(:D

Em and I played The Lover's Waltz again and afterwards got asked to play it at a wedding, a concert, and a talent show! And almost every parent at the concert came up to us to say we did real well. That felt really good. I get a warm fuzzy feeling thinking about it:)

Yes. 'Twas a good, if packed, weekend.

I had regular violin lessons today and I discussed getting a better violin. The one I have now is good quality and good for starters, but now that I'm getting really, seriously into fiddling, I need one with not just good sound but great sound. I'm saving my money up and I hope to get one *maybe* by Christmas or later... Cross fingers! The one that I would really like is $9,000, but I don't think I can afford that so I'm shooting a bit lower. Okay, way lower. Like, less than $1,000. We'll see!! My birthday is coming up *gasp!* next week?? That snuck up! Yup, next Friday! Yay!! I'll have to stick one of those count down clocks up...! :D

~Till the next exciting thing!~Gwyn~

The Lover's Waltz

I meant to post this ages ago! This is what Em and I played for her Senior recital. I played 2nd violin.

Click The Lover's Waltz to view! It is my favorite song ever! Almost.:)