A Great Day of Young Horses, Able Handlers, Scenery and Prospective Buyers....

Great photo ops.

I've Visited Family and Familiar Places in Lexington KY. Lucky Me!

If you have roots in the Bluegrass, it seems that's about all you need. Anyway, that's how I feel. Horses are a wonderful attraction; but my Mother's family came there before it was known for the horse racing, so there is lots to connect with.

Months Ago I finished this Book: Or My Favorite Founding Father....

Though controversy still surrounds the topic, I like Benjamin Franklin; by far the oldest of the most familiar founders, Franklin was a robust, successful businessman of 26 by the time George Washington was born. Franklin was a modern thinker, except for the tools and technology he had at his disposal, much more like a modern mover-and-shaker than we might suppose: he had his own media empire, he networked like crazy, he used what we call a "spreadsheet" to organize data, he was curious about everything in his world, he traveled more than many do even now, he loved to travel-even in his old age in uncomfortable conditions. He is the only founder to have signed all four of the major documents of our founding as a nation. He wasn't the best family man, but had lots of friends, mostly women. He was appropriate to the morals and customs of his time, not ours, however. And he underestimated the viciousness and blood shed of the French Revolution. These things and more, I learned from "Benjamin Franklin - An American Life" by Walter Isaacson. Readable, enjoyable if it's your first book about Franklin or you are adding to your knowledge.

World's Most Serious Baby Grow Up...

One of my neighbors' most illustrious little granddaughters is a child I refer to as "World's Most Serious Baby". As an infant, she never cracked a smile--at least not away from home, it seemed. As a toddler, she had a fiercely independent attitude which was always landing her in trouble. Phrases like "reading the riot act to Mary" and "her mother is about to kill Mary" were jokingly said. Now, at age four and a bit, she is a beguiling little pre-schooler who can't wait to go to school and be part of the scene.

Among My Favorites....

On a bike trip to the KT Trail in Missouri a couple of years ago, I found is golden scene taken near Hermann, Missouri, looking west to the setting sun. Would Lewis and Clark have enjoyed such visions on their journey so long ago?

Five Years of Blogging

I'm re-running some of my favorite older photos. I still love the action-photo of the tiny Asian toddler caught in 2010 at the Grove shopping Center in CA. The textures and shadows of the Mt. Carroll, IL backyard in late afternoon is so placid. The Farmyard Madonna, taken near home at our town's "model farm", might have been staged but it was entirely random, lovely and lucky for me.

Lent to Me Last Week..I finished it right away.

My friend knows I like art, so she was kind enough to lend me a copy of Susan Vreeland's "Girl in Hyacinth Blue"; it's a novel made up of associated short stories, connected by the common ownership of a lost painting by Johannes van der Meer or Vermeer. The series of stories regresses in time from the present: the son of a Nazi soldier who stole the painting from the home of Jewish people he had just delivered to the rail terminal for deportation. The father is now deceased and the son is anguished with guilt vs. his love for the painting. The next story is about the young Jewish girl whose father bought the painting for her; the family's anguish as Passover nears and pressure from the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam builds upon them. In the 19th Century, the painting reveals a marriage in crisis when the husband lets it slip that the girl in the painting reminds him of a still-burning affection for a long lost love. An amusing narration from a refugee of the French Revolution in next. The painting accompanies a "moses baby" during a flood in the early 1700's, with an account of witchcraft and horror. Finally, the story of the paintings creation. It's interesting to think of the possessions that survive us and passed from one generation to another. It was a good book.