Peter Piper Picked a … Pepper

First thing Saturday morning we were out on the trail. It was a perfect morning, not too cold, full sun and no wind. Even the "naked" poodles enjoyed themselves and were reluctant to come inside.

After a cup of coffee and a few minutes of checking out other blogs I had my tablet in my lap and was typing out the first bits of the article I'm writing. It went really well and before I knew it I had 2 full pages (without the photos) of text for Carm to comment on. After getting all the changes of tense fixed up (gosh I had made a mess of that the first time through)  Carm gave it the go ahead. I sat on it overnight so that I could do a re-read in the morning at which point I changed a few more things. I'll give it another read Monday morning then off it will go. I hope Jane likes it.

Later in the afternoon I headed outside again, this time with my snowshoes. Stupidly I forgot my camera though - it was such a lovely afternoon there surely would have been some good pictures to be taken. My goal with this walk was to stamp down a new path in the lower pond paddock so that we had an additional loop - maybe we could get 30 minutes worth of trail. I snowshoed over the route a few times, but as soon as I tried to walk on it with just my boots I went straight through the deep snow. Oh well, so much for that. I'll keep my snowshoes handy and maybe if I go over the path everyday eventually I'll create a walkable path. There is just enough crust to support my weight with snowshoes, but not without. I had hoped the snowshoes would have broken through more.

We watched “Secretariat” Saturday night. Great movie but it required lots of Kleenex... lots. Not to give anything away, but one for the funeral, then one for his birth (after all I had the birth of our foals foremost in my mind after writing that article), then 1/2 of one for the first race, the rest of it for the next. Then some were needed for the Triple Crown races... I can't watch a horse race, either live or a movie, without crying! I almost sob with emotion – how lame is that!

At the end of the last race of the Triple Crown (Belmont Stakes) the camera cut to a view of the last corner, as Secretariat rounded the curve, with the sound of pounding hooves in the background, the music switched over to the hymn "Oh Happy Days" - it was perfect. It was emotional. He was amazing. No horse has beat his record in all the years since (1974).

Here is a YouTube clip of the original Belmont Stakes race. Amazing. The clip from the movie for the same race can be seen here: http://youtu.be/pNeajtcNwJ0

Okay, now for my beef (not the steak kind). I like to cook and to make things with different flavours. I spend a fair amount of time following recipes and carefully measuring herbs and spices to get Moroccan, Indian, Italian and other dishes. I serve out our dishes and what is the first thing that Carm does? He puts a thick layer of pepper over everything, obliterating my efforts. I've tasted the results and all I can taste is pepper. Why do I bother with getting the flavours right? Am I the only one with this bug or are others irritated by the pepper grinder?

Sometimes I start a post with nothing much to say, but then, somehow, as if I liked the sound of my own voice, I've gone on and on. Hopefully you know when to hit the delete key!

Happy Tails Trails