Weekend Coffee Share; Time Flies, June 22, 2024

I Love this beautiful rose!

Welcome to my weekend coffee share. Can I get you something refreshing? Ice tea or ice coffee maybe? Or a strawberry lemonade? It is HOT! We are almost 100F today, it’s summertime. It has taken months for it to be this hot so I am not complaining. I also can’t complain because we have very low humidity at 29%, so thankful as I know there are plenty of people living in high humidity with the high temps. I’ve been super busy and I have to say that I’ve been away for so long I have gotten out of the habit of writing! Darn it all, as I love to share but when you don’t keep up then I feel a bit overwhelmed wondering where I should start as I tend to want to share everything! I feel like I could write a novel! HAHA!

Usually once I start typing and the thoughts start flowing then I can get into a groove and my story unfolds of what’s been happening in my life. I’ll start with a project my eldest sister wanted to make for a family member I won’t name because it’s a surprise for an event or celebration. I am 99% sure this family member doesn’t read my blog posts so I’m going to share here with minimal information. My 2 sister’s and I are making a quilt. My eldest sister had me buy on a website a cross-stitch pattern on material. The design is stamped onto the material and it will wash off so I had to be careful not to get it wet as I stitched. Here is a photo of one of the squares.

You can see light blue lines on the material. Those lines are for the quilter once the quilt is sewn together.

My sister’s were on the phone with me as we scrolled through all the choices and we really liked this cross-stitch pattern with these two colors of blue. I think it turned out great and is beautiful. I stitched 12 squares and it took me 6 months! That is one reason I had to almost stop blogging. I work full time, so I could stitch a little bit before work (but need to take care of Murphy too) and when I got home from work for maybe an hour. Then I had the weekends, but oh my gosh, the time is ticking and I wanted to complete all 12 squares. I could have sent them to my sister’s to finish, but it is my only contribution to the quilt. I realize it is the focal point of the quilt, but it was important to me to complete. It is complete and off to my eldest for her to piece it together with sashing! I’m so EXCITED to see it pieced together!!

My other sister who is my horsey sister and lives in Idaho has a long arm sewing machine. She will be doing the quilting once the quilt is sewn together by my eldest sister who lives in Colorado. This quilt will end up being the traveling quilt by the time it is done! Once completed I know they will send me photos and I can share those and I’ll share more info of the recipient. She will be so surprised and I know will love this quilt made by her Aunties!

Visiting my Mom and Dad!

Riverside National Cemetery, Memorial Day

Since I am a bit behind in blogging, I’m going to head back to the end of May as we went to Riverside national Cemetery to visit my parents. I was in awe with all the flags which makes sense now. They passed in 2003 so its been 21 years and so the area where they are buried is now full of those who have passed these last 21 years. We do not always visit there on Memorial day, and so you don’t always see all the flags. Anyways, I shared with my family members and sometimes I can’t believe how many years have gone by. I think of them often, in different ways and you never know what memories pop up from time to time. I am so happy we were able to make this visit, it was a beautiful day! ❤

Star Wars Land at Disneyland!

My daughter and I visiting Star Wars!

Yummy salmon dinner!

Lobster open faced roll! Delicious

Taking a photo of us with my kids behind us on a ride!

My hubby and me!

We are back in June and my family and I finally made it to Disneyland and Star Wars! We are huge Star Wars fans, so much so I named my middle son Harrison after Harrison Ford! We are only 35 minutes from Disneyland and I thought we should wait for the crowds to die down before visiting the new Star Wars Land. Well, we ended up waiting 5 years! Haha, not intentionally of course. Mostly just getting busy and trying to get everyone’s schedule together so we could meet up and spend the day there. It was a nice day, not too hot. We went the first week of June! We ended up eating dinner at a nice restaurant at Downtown Disney which is in walking distance just outside the park. After dinner we went back into the park to experience more rides! Fun time for all!

How are you doing? Do you need a refill? I have been making a lot of video’s of Murphy because I created a YouTube channel. I am getting a little obsessed with sharing all things Murphy! Haha, it’s very fun, he is so fun. I so enjoy my time with him and I know he enjoys our time together. ❤ I’ll share a link to one of my most watched video’s which has over 2K views. I now have 18 subscribers and 8.4K views as of today. Its crazy there’s people that watch little old me and my sweet horse when there are thousands on YouTube.

I started the channel in March because I was planning on taking video’s of riding Murphy and entering into some online horse shows. The way you enter is uploading your YouTube video, so I created the channel. It’s morphed into just a place to share all things Murphy as I’m just not that interested in showing at this time. Even if it’s as simple as making a video and entering an online show, I’m just busy enough to not be interested. 😀

Enjoying Murphy in the arena! He is my muse and friend. He loves people and attention!

Speaking of Murphy, a funny story! His stall backs up to an elementary school. He can walk to the back and put his head over the fence and greet anyone who walks up to the fence behind him. School is out now for the summer, but when school is in session he greets all who park in the back of the school. There was a water leak from a sprinkler from the school and the barn manager called the school about it and the next day the security guard was out and about and talked to the barn manager after the repair. He asked her, what’s that big horse’s name over there? He pointed to Murphy and she told him his name. He said he greets us every morning, he is so friendly. He’s so tall you can’t miss him! He wants to meet EVERYONE!

I think he is getting use to posing for me and my photos! ❤

Well, this is long enough and I think I’ve caught you up on the happenings around here. I am riding Murphy and he and I are doing great together. I’ve ended with a few photo’s of him that I took recently. I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend. I know some are heading into winter as we get on here with summer. Thank you for stopping by and I want to thank Natalie for hosting the #weekendcoffeeshare link up. Have a wonderful week ahead! 😀

Take care my friends,

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share and Square Challenge Fun

My beautiful rose bloom. I love the hint of pink and wish you could smell it, so rosy!

Welcome to my weekend coffee share, can I get you a cup of coffee or tea? I thought I would create both a coffee share and use as the square challenge for my blogging friend Becky B’s Square challenge this month too. In order to participate I need to make all my photos in “square” format and then share the theme which is Moving Forward. This could mean Reconstruct, Renew and/or are Burgeoning which is a great Spring theme. As I share coffee and my square theme I think the rose above could be burgeoning with color! I will share more photos that are burgeoning with color and beauty.

My beautiful Iris blooms!

The renewal each year of these beautiful blooms!

I couldn’t resist sharing my garden blooms which always make me smile and make me appreciate what Springtime brings to us as we enter into warmth, sunshine and the beauty of nature that comes this time of year. I can also relate this theme of Moving Forward to my personal life as I had to move forward with my horse Murphy. We were not in a good place back in February where he was so unhappy where he was living that I had to move forward and find him a better place to live. We moved to a beautiful boarding facility just a mile away from where he was at and he is so HAPPY! Here are a few photos of Murphy as our partnership has been renewed!

Murphy is so happy grazing and at his new home!

We have been here at the new barn for 2 months now, and he is flourishing and he and I have a wonderful bond together. I am able to turn him out to run around in the arena which is so important to his mental health. (At the other barn, it was not allowed to turn out in the arena which was hurting his mental health. He was so unhappy as there was no place to really run and stretch his legs!) I’ll share a video here of Murphy lose in the arena. Even though he can run he is often lazy too, which is a good thing. I want a calm, relaxed horse that has the room to run if he so chooses. 😀

Can I get you a refill? I wanted to share my moving forward as I have been talking for years about moving closer to family. We are working harder than ever to make this dream come to fruition hopefully this year. We are wanting to move closer to my daughter who is 3.5 hours north of us here in California. I will have to keep you updated on this process as we are in the beginning stages and months away. I am hoping for a smooth transition as I think moving can be very stressful. We will work hard to keep stress at a minimum. That is very renewing, and a little hard to imagine at this point, so staying positive as we head down this path!

I’ll end with this image of my burgeoning basil and lavender blooms! My camera focused on the basil in the background making the lavender a bit blurry but I thought it was a fun artsy kind of photo. I have this “live focus” on my camera and I think works great on my bigger blooms, haha, tried it on this shot and it’s fun to see how it turns out. I also want to wish all the Mom’s out there a wonderful Happy Mother’s Day!

I thank you for sharing coffee with me today and I hope you enjoyed my renew theme for Becky B’s square challenge. I have to get going here, off to the stables to take care of Murphy and so want to get this finished up and linked up for everyone. Thank you Natalie for the #weekendcoffeeshare link up. I appreciate you all stopping by!

Happy, Renew, Coffee sharing Mom!

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; Family and Roses!

Welcome! I just love my rose blooms!

I can’t believe April is almost over as the months rush by this year. Welcome to my coffee share! Can I get you a cup of coffee or tea? The blooms are really making their mark here where I live, although I am still waiting for my Iris’s to bloom. Last weekend was birthday weekend for my hubby and my daughter. His birthday was the 13th and hers the 14th. We drove up to Arroyo Grande, CA where my daughter lives to celebrate. We had great food and fun together.

Above, my daughter and hubby in Morro Bay, and Dave and I with the mural behind us (and the sun glare.) 😀 Behind them is the rock which Morro Bay is known for and is a State Historic Landmark. According to the internet “it was formed 23 million years ago from the plugs of long-extinct volcanoes.” It was an important navigational aid for hundreds of years to mariners as it stands 576 feet tall. The town is quaint and fun to walk around and shop. We ate a yummy lunch in Morro bay and I forgot to take photos of my food. I had Shrimp Louie salad with shrimp and crab, DELICIOUS! And we ate with the view of the bay. Here are a few more photos.

Beautiful bay!

The Morro Bay Rock!

My daughter LOVES ALL bookstores and so we stopped in town and visited this bookstore in the photos above. I found a book called Thoroughbred Spirit, and it has wonderful photos and chapters about The Blood Horse, The Sport of Kings and a Vision of Beauty to name a few. It’s been so FUN to read all about the Thoroughbred ~ I can’t wait to finish the book. Its a great book to have on a coffee table. ❤

We treated each other to dinners too! I did remember to take a few photos of the dinner we had for my daughter’s birthday. She is very much a foodie, trying so many great restaurants and expense is not worried about and so she will bring us to the best food restaurants in town. I am more of a foodie than my husband and my favorite channel is the Food Network which I end up having on often just to have something to relax to while I work on my crafts. Its on in the background.

Celebrating! ❤

Me and hubby! ❤

Delicious!

Best pizza ever!

Happy Birthday to these beautiful people! I feel so blessed. ❤ The weekend was so wonderful even though it rained the two days we were visiting. Thankfully, it only rained in the mornings as you can see at Morro Bay it was nice and sunny in the afternoon. We ate at a nice restaurant in Arroyo Grande and the plate on the left above was an appetizer toast with tons of yummy stuff on the top! Too many things to remember it all, it was so yummy. And we ordered two pizza’s we shared. The one my daughter is about to take a piece was a caramelized onion, mushroom with the best cheese, walnuts and honey! It was so unusual an umami bomb! The other was a pepperoni pizza which was so good but a bit spicy for me. Lucky, my husband preferred the spicy pepperoni!

Meet Molly! ❤

I can’t remember if I’ve shared but will share again if I didn’t, that my daughter lost one of her kitties in February. She was an all black kitty named Evie, and she probably had a congenital defect that caused fluid in her lungs. She wasn’t that old but it was so bad that she has crossed the rainbow bridge. My daughter has another kitty named Mousse. You can see Mousse in the photo on the left staring up at the kitten. Mousse is just over a year old and she decided she wanted to get her a friend as Mousse was adopted to be Evie’s friend. Above is my daughter’s new adopted kitty she named Molly! She is about 6 months old, a little shy but super sweet! She wouldn’t sit still long enough for a decent photo. She’s so adorable, I just had to share. ❤ We are all animal LOVER’S and have many furry family members! ❤

Can I get you a refill? I have so much to share, my goodness, April is a busy month for us here. I think I’ve covered most of the happenings around here. I so enjoy sharing, and I hope you all have enjoyed the coffee and our virtual time together. What’s been going on in your neck of the woods?

Murphy was well cared for while we were away! This was when I returned, he is so happy! ❤

I’ve missed the weekend coffee share link up as I took too long to get this together this weekend. And with the time difference, it’s closed. It’s all good as I am still going to share, there just won’t be any link to others. I am going to have to write and share on Saturday’s!

Family Loving Mom, Wife and Cowgirl!

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; Welcome Spring!

The same bush with different blooms!

Welcome April, and welcome to my weekend coffee share. Can I get you a cup of coffee or tea? I am looking forward to some warmer weather this next week. It has been unusually cold here in southern California as we haven’t seen 80F(27C) in a few months. I am grateful for the coolness but am looking forward to some nice warm weather as we head into Spring! I am welcoming Spring with all that it brings!

How has your week been for you? I am enjoying my new barn that I moved Murphy to last month. I can’t believe how fast these weeks fly by and we are having so much fun together. The other thing on my mind this weekend is friendships and how friends can change. I’ve been reading how as we get older our values and what is important most to us can change and that it is normal for friendships to drift apart. It is difficult to be friends with someone who doesn’t see you and in conversations can misconstrue what we say, as they feel hurt and betrayed and when you discover this as they share I feel shocked. All I can do is move on and hope and pray for them and hope they can find peace and happiness. Life is complicated and so are relationships whether they be friendships or family relations.

I know I am not alone with the struggles of friendships whether it be with loved ones or friends. I just have to say that its been a tough couple of years and I am tired and can only take care of myself. I find that blogging is therapeutic as I enjoy sharing my thoughts here and sometimes these thoughts when shared helps me appreciate life and all that life can give us. I want to stay strong and as positive as I can and pray that any angst I may have caused to anyone in my life will some day resolve itself. I know I am being very vague, intentionally so, as there is absolutely nothing that can be done with the family estranged or the friends that are hurt. Life goes on and I’ll pray for them like I always do. ❤

The stormy day looking at the mountains!

The next day, mountain views!

I thought I would share some photos of the storm that recently came through. The clouds are so pretty and this year has been full of weather events. We have joked over the years that Southern California is just hot and sunny. We would make such a huge deal when clouds would arrive and we would relish every rain shower! The last two years have been the opposite of that where we have seen tons of storms and much cooler winter. The photos I’ve shared look so much prettier in person and the local mountains when covered in snow are dramatic and beautiful!

I found some blooms! They are not here in my yard but in my town. These daisies are just so beautiful and the roses are from the barn. I will take more photos of the roses as they have a long row of roses and they are all starting to bloom! I just LOVE all flowers and the blooms are so beautiful and make me smile! 😀 What makes you smile? I have a ton of things that make me smile, flowers are definitely at the top of my list!!

Can I get you more coffee or tea? I’ll end with these photos of the most handsome guy and he helps keep me going every single day! Haha, I know he will survive just fine if I did not go to the barn every day. I so enjoy being with Murphy as much as he enjoys being with me! As I arrive he always nickers to me to say Hi! I always turn him out so he can enjoy another area to explore, and I ride him about every other day or so. I am reading a wonderful book called “Horse Brain, Human Brain – The Neuroscience of horsemanship” by Janet L. Jones PhD and I have learned so much about horses. Did you know that their sense of smell rivals dogs? Who knew! They can smell things far better than any human and it is far better for you to let them explore their environment when they reach with their nose to sniff something, than to reprimand or pull them back and not let them explore and enjoy their surroundings. There is so much more I can share, but this is getting long enough! Just know that our bond together is AMAZING! I LOVE YOU MURPHY! ❤ ❤ ❤

Thank you for sharing coffee with me today and I hope you have a wonderful week ahead. I have to thank Natalie for our weekend coffee share link which is here ~ and please visit others if you can. I am thankful to be here and am thankful for my life, my family and my furry family too!

Loving Spring,

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; End Of March Fun!

Welcome to my weekend coffee share!

I can’t believe it is the end of March! Can I get you a cup of coffee or tea? I have had a busy March as my sister was here visiting from Idaho. One of her son’s lives here near me so it is nice when she comes to visit him, she also spends time with me and Murphy. This is my riding sister (she is one of four sister’s and one brother) and her and I have ridden together all our lives. Since I have recently moved Murphy to a new stables, it was great that she happened to visit this month so she could see his new digs. She also could see the change in Murphy and how happy he is now. We are all happy campers! 😀

My Sister And Murphy!

My sister and I have so much fun together. Where I now keep Murphy, the arena is amazing and really big. Since I am mostly doing arena riding with him, it is nice I happen to find a place not only with a nice big paddock for Murphy, but I huge arena for him to run free in and for us to ride. A win, win!! I am so happy at the new stables and I know Murphy is happy too! I have lot’s of photos to share since I haven’t posted much this month.

Murphy in the wash stall. They have hot water too!

Me and Murphy after a rinse!

Murphy after a nice warm wash! He is so handsome, but then I’m prejudice!

It’s been nice weather this March, not too hot nor too cold. Just PERFECT! As I speak however, there’s a big storm here for the whole weekend. SO MUCH RAIN! and more rain coming! Lucky, we dry out fast but it has been a wet year for us here in Southern, CA. I can’t complain except that I won’t be riding until next week some time when things dry out. My sister timed her trip perfectly. It was dry and sunny most days, and much warmer than Idaho. She went home to a little bit of snow on the ground and we headed into stormy weather. I wonder if we will have those super blooms that happen here with wild California Poppy’s? It is so crazy, as they bloom all over the hills and mountains after a lot of rain. It’s a sight to see and I’ll get some photos if it happens this year!

My sister riding Murphy at the new stables!

My first upload of my youtube channel I created. I hope this link will work. I am still learning all the techy stuff and my son helps me when I get stuck. How FUN! Let’s see if this works!

Murphy after a nice run!

Me and my selfies! Haha!

I haven’t made a selfie in a long while! Haha, it’s hard with Murphy being so big. I almost got his whole head in the shot! 😀 I didn’t take too much time trying to get a better photo and am just sharing what I got yesterday. It was such a gorgeous day! And now it’s cold and rainy. My how the weather can change!

Can I get you a refill? How has this last month gone for you, anything fun happening? I am so grateful and thankful for the healing of our sweet dog BZ. If you missed my earlier blog posts, our sweet dog was attacked by 2 lose dogs that entered our secured yard. We think they dug under the fence. She is all healed up and doing GREAT! She has so much energy and is such a joy in our lives. Here are a couple of photos I took earlier today! ❤

Her pretty coat is slowly growing back in and she is another happy camper! ❤ It makes me happy that all the animals, our furry family are doing well and are happy. I have had dogs, cats and horses all my life and can’t imagine life without them. I have many up in heaven now, but they are worth every penny and every hour we are able to spend with them. Do you have any animals in your life? I know they can bring much comfort, joy and tons of smiles!

Murphy needed this room to run and stretch his legs! He is so happy!

I’ll end with this video of Murphy lose in the arena when I first moved in at the new barn. Since it looks like my YouTube link worked, I will share more in the future! Thank you to Beaton, a fellow blogger who shared this great way to share videos. I’ve seen many others share from YouTube, I just was too lazy to create a YouTube account. I am glad I finally did. I may enter Murphy and I in a virtual horse show soon. I have a friend at the new barn who is doing this and so she is encouraging me to video and enter the horse show. These virtual horse shows were created during Covid, and are still very popular today. It is a great way to enter with people entering from all over the world, without traveling a foot outside your property! I needed a YouTube channel in order to go forward and enter these virtual horse shows! Haha, another win, win! Since I can share them here too.

Happy Easter Weekend, and Thank You Natalie for hosting the #weekendcoffeeshare. I’ll add the link here and please visit others if you have time.

Crazy horse gal and animal lover,

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; Welcome March!

Welcome to my weekend coffee share, can I get you a cup of coffee or tea? I’m having coffee with my favorite Sweet Italian Cream. I can’t believe the weather this year. It is a copy of last year with cool temps and lots of rain. Here in Southern California we don’t usually get this much rain which of course is needed to fill up the reservoir’s, but can cause landslides and floods. I thankfully live in a safe area, not on the side of a mountain! We are looking at some warmer temps in the coming weeks. I am so looking forward to Spring!

I have been hiding out a bit, mustering through some tough times which I shared in my last post. It’s hard to share tough times but it can be cathartic too. If you missed it or would like to read I’ll share a link here. I can honestly say that things are going in the right direction as we are all healing, my furry family members and all of us humans too. It is life’s journeys and so I am looking forward and will not dwell in the past. Just know that I always try and stay as positive as I can and so here I am sharing coffee with some fun photo’s I wanted to share! 😀

Our sweet BZ girl!

BZ And Drew who is up in heaven ❤

I thought I would share some photos of BZ which are from a few years ago. Drew was an adoption from our daughter-in-law. He wasn’t really good around children and so he ended up living out the rest of his life with us and BZ. They loved each other and were great friends. BZ here has house friends, our two cats which funny thing, are from my son and daughter-in-law. They kept getting kittens and had four cats which wasn’t a good mix. After my last kitty past, I told them I could take whatever kitties they thought would do best with us. They gave us the sister’s, Duchess and Dinah!

Duchess the tabby and her sister Dinah! Such LOVES!

They all get along great! Dinah, the grey is a snuggle bunny curling up in our laps. Duchess would rather sit next to you and purr. We are so thankful for the animals in our lives. What furry friends do you have? it is so fun to share with everyone as they bring us love and smiles! 😀

How are you doing, can I get you a refill? I am learning so much about all our animals in my life. I’ve learned about my sweet dog and her will to live and her amazing stamina. I am also learning that horses can communicate in ways you have to really slow down, watch and listen. They have a language all their own and I have been reading some really good books about horses. I’ve finished a great book by Mark Rashid called “Horses Never Lie” his newest addition. I put it on my wish list for Christmas and it was an excellent read! Another wish list book I am currently reading “Horse Brain, Human Brain” by Janet L Jones PhD. It’s about the Neuroscience of horsemanship. I love the science behind the horse and human connections, so fascinating! I’m always learning, any way I can!

He loves his hay bag!

what Mom? I’m calling his name!

You called? here I come! So friendly, we have such a great bond!

I was standing there admiring Murphy, how happy he is now in his huge paddock. He is so friendly as I kept saying his name because I just wanted him to look at me for a photo! He melts my heart as he stopped eating to come and see what I wanted as I petted him and kissed his nose. He then turned and went back to his hay bag. ❤

I shared in my last post about Murphy and our move but will touch upon here. I have a friend who I messaged about this ranch and was able to move Murphy to a new boarding facility in town. It’s just a mile and street over from where I was boarding him and it is bigger and has a huge paddock for him to live in. I also can turn him out in a big arena where he can run, buck and stretch his legs. He needed this and is so happy now. He was getting to be a handful where I was boarding with no room to run and his living paddock was too small for his size. Happy horse = happy human! 😀 I feel like I should have known he needs more room, but I wanted to be with my best friend and her horse and thought the big round pen would be enough room. It wasn’t and the fact he was living 24 hours in a much smaller paddock wore on him. I’m so thankful I was able to find a solution quickly and everything fell into place seamlessly! We are both so HAPPY! ❤

His other side! I Love him so much!

You may notice in the photo where Murphy is walking towards me, he has some silver spray on a wound on his left front leg just at the hoof line called the coronet band. He cut it, an ugly gash at the last stables (another good reason to move to a bigger place). He cut the skin pretty bad, it was a flap of skin which needed a vet call. The vet had to cut the skin off as there was no sewing it back together. He also cut part of the hoof so praying it grows out with no issues. I will keep it sprayed and hope it heals without another vet call. Thankfully, he doesn’t limp and it’s not swollen or infected. But it was another, oh dear, what else can happen type of thing! We are looking forward to healing! Haha, my mantra for this month – HEALING!

Thank you for sharing coffee or tea with me this morning! I have been missing you all and have been trying to visit even though I was a bit withdrawn. I hope you all are doing well, and things are going in the right direction for you. I don’t have much advice other than the positivity I always try and share. Thank you for reading and for visiting! Here’s Murphy saying “Howdy” to you all!

Sorry for the huge photo! Haha, I tried to resize it without much luck. I’m going to share it anyways! Have a wonderful weekend and week ahead!

Animal Loving, Horse Crazy Gal,

-Diana ❤

Let’s Skip February, Looking Forward To March!

Looking forward to Spring! A photo from last year!

Welcome to my stories! I wanted to start with, I’ve been missing blogging. I also wanted to apologize for all the ads that now show up on my blog because I am back to a free account. I had paid for years and with rising prices I decided to stop paying which means everyone visiting has to scroll past ads. Sorry about that. Maybe some day I’ll go back to paying. It’s a big question I have, am I really getting a better blog by paying? Maybe, in the sense I get rid of the ads, but other than that I am going to just stick with the free for now.

As I write this I realize I did lose a lot of storage space since going back to free. I also lost sharing video’s. I know many clean up their blog and so in order to download new photos I had to delete old ones to make room. I have been meaning to do this anyways and probably deleted a ton I didn’t need too, but I have freed up a ton of space. I also deleted a lot of old blog posts now that the photos have been removed from them. It’s almost like I have a new blog, haha! Not really, I feel like I am learning all the time what it is to blog and what’s the purpose of keeping a bunch of old blog posts. I doubt they will ever get read and I had blog posts that went back 5 years! YIKES! I like to keep things moving forward so making room for new posts is the way to go forward! 😀

What a month we’ve had. And although there has been some things throughout last year I wish I could change, it’s been quite a year also. I shared on another social media page how I tend to withdraw and not want to share when things are bad, sad or extremely emotional. I need to live through it first and then reflect back as life gets back to a steady state. February was brutal for us and my family.

Our beautiful, sweet dog BZ was brutally attacked on Feb. 14th. It was a nice sunny day and we had her out in our enclosed front yard and she was sleeping in her dog house we have out there when 2 Pitbull’s dug under our fence where there was some erosion and squeezed under and viscously attacked her. They literally pulled her out of her dog house, they ripped the lid off (it’s a plastic two piece dog house) and then proceeded to try and kill her. My son heard the noise and got my husband who was in the garage and they were able to get the dogs to let go and leave the property. (The dogs were eventually located and animal control was involved from the minute the dogs left and our dog was rushed to the Veterinary hospital. The dogs through animal control were surrendered and euthanized due to the viciousness of the attack and they were deemed dangerous to the public and town. The owners are liable and this is an ongoing process for us. This is incredibly sad for all as I’m actually sad they were euthanized but the owners did not contain them in their yard and the laws in our city is what animal control enforces.)

Her new look post surgery with an ear up!

This is after her last surgery, she’s had two and she’s healing!

BZ girl is 14 years old this year. My husband named her BZ and I asked him why this name and he says, I don’t know, I just like BZ. He picked her out of a litter of puppies at a yard sale for free just down the street. She is a cattle dog mix breed and she’s a big girl weighing in at 72lb’s. The vet said that what saved her life was all the lose skin around her neck and shoulders. It tore so badly but no vital organs were injured and no broken bones. She is so strong and the will to live is AMAZING! She is a true miracle in my book and its so sad this has happened to her in her golden years. She is on a second type of antibiotics after a culture came back that the infection brewing was resistant to the other antibiotics she was on. She is so LOVED. ❤

February was a struggle with my sweet horse Murphy too. I had moved him last October to a new barn which has smaller paddocks than where he was and I thought he would be okay in the smaller stall, but unfortunately he became really unhappy. The place also did not allow us to turn out the horses to run in the arena. The arena was only for riding. This left a round pen which isn’t very big so poor Murphy had no place to run and buck when he needed to release energy when he feels good. I believe all horses should have a paddock, pasture or big arena to run. Murphy’s pent up energy was worse with the cold, rainy weather. He became harder to handle and I started losing sleep thinking I need to find him a bigger place to live.

His small stall. I moved him 5 day’s ago!

His new giant paddock! He is so much happier now!

He now has a neighbor, an old mustang which is important for his mental health!

He is so happy now!

My hubby helped me put up that black shade cloth. Murphy has so much room now! YAY!

I reached out to a friend who I knew was boarding at a place that had huge pasture type paddocks. Everything fell into place as there was one paddock open. Within one day I had secured this nice huge paddock for him and planned on moving him in a week at the end of February. I also asked the owner where he was if he could live out in a bigger paddock that they use for turn outs only. They don’t rent them but for one week he was able to live outside and this helped him so much! I had him trailered to the new place and he loaded into the trailer like a champ. Some horses do not like horse trailers or have little experience with them. I was a bit worried because he hasn’t trailered in the 3 years I’ve owned him. He is such a great horse, remembering his trailing with his racing days moving from Kentucky to Ohio, then to Oklahoma. Oh and then to California! I knew he had trailing experience and all good experience. LOVE YOU MURPHY!! He’s back to his sweet, kind self. I’m excited for our new adventures at his new home!

The arena is huge and he can run and play!

Such a handsome guy! So Happy!!

I actually started a weekend coffee share last weekend, only to find out I couldn’t upload any photos because I had used up all my space! Darn it all! So I had to scrap that post and work on cleaning up my blog so that I could share these new photos. I’m happy to be sharing again and I am hoping better days are ahead. I am hoping for fun days again with my family and all my furry family too! It’s been a journey, and journey’s sometimes are sad or hard but I know this all makes us stronger. I sometimes think I can’t be any stronger, and I come out the other side fine. I want to share smiles again, Spring is on it’s way. I hope you all are doing well and have lots to smile about too!

I’ll end with this photo I just took in our front yard! I wanted to see if I could see a rainbow, no rainbow but I love how the sun is shining but the storm is coming! We had a ton of rain yesterday and more this evening as you can see the clouds coming our way. I’m smiling as I am at peace and I don’t have to worry about Murphy. He has plenty of room and stays nice and dry under his shelter in the rain! ❤

Smiling, Grateful, Animal Loving Gal,

-Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; End Of January

Reminiscing and remembering my sweet Chloe girl! ❤

Welcome to my weekly smile. I haven’t shared a smile post since last September and to be honest, I haven’t been writing much these days. I’ve started this post at least three different times, having trouble finding the words that use to flow so easily as I’m struggling these days with lots and some of life’s biggest challenges. Some of these challenges are things like when should I retire? Where should we live once we retire? and I worry about some of my family members who struggle with mental health issues. Other than these things that have been occupying my mind, I am trying to find all the small things that make you smile! So here I am hoping I can find the words and the small things that make me smile. 😀

I had memories on my social media this last week of my sweet horse Chloe that I shared. It actually brought me great smiles as I reminisce and remember my sweet girl. That is why I thought I would share a photo of her to open up this smile post. She brought so much joy in my life and I know she is at peace and out of pain now. She was with me for 18 years, and even though I miss her immensely I am very grateful to have Murphy to love on and share my mornings with each day.

Murphy and I having a great ride!

Murphy is so much FUN! I lie a tiny bit, as he is very fun to ride and is very respectful but when I work with him on the ground and lead him around to get from point A to point B he is sometimes a challenge and disrespectful. I have realized that in my kindness to him, I’ve let him be the leader of the 2 of us and so when I challenge him to follow me he puts up a fuss and sometimes refuses and acts out. My sister was here for a couple of weeks in January and she has helped me immensely with his ground manners and he is so much better. She has found a good trainer with good YouTube videos that we have been watching, and with his guidance we have really got Murphy thinking smarter and he has been so much better. I know we are on the right path with his manners! This makes me smile! 😀

My sister having fun riding my sweet guy!

I do enjoy the challenge he brings even though I’ve had some frustrating days working with him the last few months. He and I are learning so much together. It’s been a hot minute that I’ve had to train a young horse and he has quite the personality. He is sensitive but strong willed. He’s big and very tall which can be intimidating. I’ve learned that he is very smart and a fast learner and I have respect for his size and he doesn’t worry or scare me as our bond has grown immensely. He doesn’t want to hurt me, he mostly wants to do what Murphy wants to do, but he’s too big to let him have his way. So I have learned ways that convince him that it is better to follow my lead and do what I would like to do and believe me I do not ask him to do anything that would ever hurt him and I don’t exercise him to death either! Haha, meaning I don’t ride him for hours and I try and make all that we do fun together. He truly is a sweet guy!

If you click on the photos you can see them better and these photos have my girlfriend Sally riding her horse Roscoe with my sister riding Murphy. We had so much fun together! This makes me smile too! 😀

While my sister was visiting we took a hike in the local hills here in my town to Pumpkin Rock. You can see the view from the rock on this hazy January day. I’ve shared photos of this hike before and I’m trying to remember maybe a year ago or so? Anyways, my sister loves the outdoors and hiking, walking, jogging and riding horses! She is two years younger than me and we share so many passions together. The horses and our crafts. She makes me smile! 😀

I’ll end this crazy smile post with Murphy eating his lunch. He’s a good eater which I am thankful for as he maintains his weight easily. He eats a lot with his size, haha! He reminds me of like a goofy Marmaduke, love the way he looks at me! As I wrap this up I am feeling better and am happy I finally got pen to paper as it were…. I suppose the best way to end this is what makes you smile?

Have a great day!

~Diana ❤

Silent Christmas Eve Sunday

The magic of Christmas never ends.
It's greatest gifts are family and friends. ❤ ❤ ❤

I hope everyone has a wonderful, beautiful and blessed holiday season. I am looking forward to a New Year and 2024. Stay safe, healthy and happy.

With Love,

-Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; November Fun!

Beautiful November day!

Welcome to my weekend coffee share where we share what’s been happening in our lives. Can I get you a cup of coffee or tea? We had some rain a couple of days ago and it could rain some this weekend too. I can’t believe November is half way through and that the holidays are so near. I am not prepared at all for the holidays, are you? I am going to just take one day at a time and not fret much and try and enjoy this holiday season the best I can this year. Today was truly a beautiful day as the sun shone through lots of floating clouds. The temperature was perfect around 70F/21C degrees, with a slight breeze blowing every once in awhile. This evening as the sun was setting dark clouds were coming and the way the sun shone on the local hills with the clouds I thought would be a pretty picture. The photo above is from my front porch! 😀

I have been keeping really busy at work the last few weeks. There has been some extra training I had to do for employees that have transferred to the Chemistry department at the veterinary lab I work at. I am the senior tech in my department so I often do a lot of training. I do love to teach but it can be stressful when things get busy as we have to run the blood work that comes through while we train. I also had instrument alarms which causes the instruments to either stop functioning or I have to rerun blood work. Either way, just adds stress in our already stressed lives. Enough about work, let me share the fun things I do which helps relieve my stress from work.

It’s been a month since I shared this cross-stitch and you can see I have finished the left side of the piece which is the first photo on the left. The instructions are on 2 pages and what I have completed is on page one and I am now on the second page, so I am excited about working on the bottom half of this project. Here is a photo of the completed project so you can see I am going to be working on the ocean scene and the rest of the saying of this Native American proverb. It is my stress relief, creative love and where I can lose myself in my crafting. It is second to my animal LOVE!

I Love this cross stitch book!

Can I get you a refill as we chat? I am enjoying my coffee and recently have been drinking more decaf as I had noticed that the caffeine in coffee was making me feel more stressed. I absolutely love the flavor of coffee and so by reducing the caffeine I can still enjoy the yumminess. I still drink regular coffee with all its caffeine but I am more strategic as to when I drink it so I don’t get jittery or feel stressed. On to my other love and that would be my sweet guy Murphy!

My sweet Murphy!

He stands so good for me!

Whatcha looking at Murph?

I am having so much fun with Murphy as we get to ride more often and he is getting use to the stables. The arena has a lot of trees along the fence and the arena is next to another property that has goats roaming around. They can walk very close to the trees so he can barely see them. Today when I rode he spied some movement and did a little spook which included a hop and he switched his lead as he moved off the rail. I didn’t see it but he did and as I brought him back down from the canter and the spook my girlfriend in the arena said the goats are on the move! 😀 It’s all good and his spooks are easy to ride through, and he never gets more up or excited which is a good thing! He’s a good boy!

Murphy is 5 1/2 years old and such a chunky monkey. These photos that I am sharing are from this last weekend and you can see the mounting block in the photo near Murphy. He knows he is suppose to stand next to the mounting block so I can mount up and climb up on his back to ride. I use the stirrup of my saddle as I do this which in the photos my stirrups are tucked up neatly next to the saddle. That’s how we keep the stirrups when we aren’t riding, we slide the stirrup iron up the stirrup leather. He is posing for me and he is most excellent about standing where I ask him too! ❤

It’s plenty warm enough here for a good wash after a ride!

I so enjoy sharing all the things I do with Murphy. He has grown up and really filled out, such a big boy. We have a really nice routine at the new barn that I moved to at the beginning of October. Horses thrive with a good routine and our relationship grows every day, we have so much fun together. They say that every day you are with your horse you are training them one way or another, and so I try and be as consistent as I can be with all I do with him. He is a funny guy with a wonderful personality and I am truly grateful for him in my life. ❤

I received this in my WordPress feed and so I thought I would share. I actually didn’t start really blogging until 2017. My daughter encouraged me to write and was the one who told me about WordPress 9 years ago. Funny, she started a blog but never really used it and I am the one who has used it the most. I so enjoy blogging even though it took me a year or so to figure things out. It also took awhile to get some readers and I have to thank each and every one of you for reading and commenting when you do. Thanks for flying with me as they say!! 😀

Thank you for sharing coffee with me and for stopping by. I have to thank Natalie who hosts a link for all of us #weekendcoffeeshare posts. Please visit there (click here) and catch up with others and I will pass the coffee pot on and ask what’s happening in your neck of the woods?

Grateful Horse Crazy Gal,

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share And Walktober Fun!

My birthday was last weekend October 21st! Thanks to my daughter for the yummy cake!

Welcome! Please enjoy a piece of my birthday cake! It actually was the perfect size to share with my daughter last weekend. I really wanted to write last weekend but by the time I returned from visiting my daughter on Sunday and taking care of my horse I ran out of time. I had one last birthday dinner with my hubby and son who I left behind when I visited my daughter up north. That dinner tasted great but we had to wait awhile to be seated and then the service was a little to be desired. It took almost 2 hours to eat which made it too late to write. I am making up for that as this is going to be two blog posts in one as I really wanted to join in on Walktober and share my post with Dawn! Can I get you a cup of coffee or tea as I share the happenings this month of October? I have a nice decaf as its the evening here in CA.

I’m not sure where to start as I believe the Walktober is suppose to be all about the Fall colors that are so vibrant and beautiful in all the areas that have that kind of foliage. Here in Southern California there isn’t much color change at all. We are more desert and I believe way too warm/hot and so I have photos of the new stables I moved to where there are a lot of trees, but they are very green. I was at the beach up North and there isn’t much change there either, or the right kind of trees. It’s still fun to share my area, and the month of October, my favorite month!

By the pier and the signage changes colors!

Pismo Beach and fog!

Tuna tartare

Grilled duck!

Yummy oysters

My first night at my daughter’s she brought me to Pismo Beach for the most delicious dinner at the Oyster Loft restaurant. She lives just 5 minutes from Pismo and I drove into some fog as you can see in the foggy photos of the town and the Pismo Beach sign. To the right of that sign is the pier and the ocean. We tasted two types of oyster’s with the Morro Bay oyster’s which are at the top of the photo being our favorites! Yummy!! I’ve never had duck, and that grilled duck was absolutely divine. It may not look like much but everything was grilled and the gastrique sauce was so FULL of flavor I couldn’t believe it. I’m thankful my daughter can afford to treat me at these foodie places. I was in foodie heaven!!

My daughter had a tuna tartare with avocado and cucumbers. She said it was delicious but I told her she should taste my duck and she loved it. I gave her a few more bites and later on in the weekend she said she can’t wait to go back to order her own grilled duck. It truly was that good! I’ll go back any day! Haha, I know we are loving something that isn’t seafood at an ocean restaurant, but wait, as I had my favorite seafood dish the next day!

A very nice lady walking by asked us if she could take our photo!

I wish I brought different shoes which would have made my pants look nicer! Haha, the things you think of after the fact. I brought a nice blouse because it was a nicer eatery, and my daughter said the jeans are fine because its the beach. The food I had the whole weekend was definitely the best present my daughter treated and bought for me. Love her so very much! She also bought me a few things I found while we shopped as gifts. Oh she is SO MUCH FUN!! I am hoping some day (in the near future hopefully) we can move up near where she lives so we all can be closer. She is about 3.5 hours away. 😀

My favorite spice store!

Main street in Solvang, CA with some pretty mostly green trees!

We drove to Solvang where we visited our favorite stores. We walked around a bit but spent the most time in our favorite Spice store and book store. I bought one of my favorite spices called Sweetie Tweetie, a blend the store created. I also bought two new spices to try and we also enjoyed the book store in Solvang. Afterwards we went to a Michelin star restaurant near Solvang for lunch. That is the two photos above where she had the egg salad sandwich with a yummy spread and I had the cheese crepe with the roasted tomato’s. We also enjoyed an appetizer of sardines with home made saltine crackers. DELICIOUS! And such a treat!

Downtown Arroyo Grande, pretty architecture!

My favorite sanddabs at Ada’s Fish House!

For my birthday I had my favorite, Pacific sanddabs with sweet potato fries and green beans. The last time I had these sanddabs at Ada’s I had scalloped potatoes as the side dish. We ended up going there for lunch instead of dinner and so I wanted to try a different side and the sweet potato fries were super yummy, the fish was AMAZING! My birthday weekend was so beautiful and it was so great to spend it with my beautiful daughter. I’m so proud of her and her accomplishments as a Major in the Space Force at Vandenberg Space Force Base. She brings me such joy!!

I so wanted to share my birthday weekend last weekend and I am not sure how this falls into Walktober other than it was a fun-filled October event. I know not everyone is a foodie and/or loves food photos but I was excited to share my adventures both in visiting, shopping and of the culinary kind. 😀 I’ll head into the rest of my October which is photos of my horse Murphy at our new boarding facility. There are tons of trees there, but no fall colors to speak of. Haha!

My hubby took this photo of me with Murphy and his truck! 😀

He’s so tall he can see over the fence! Pretty trees in background!

Murphy is so much FUN!

I can’t believe October is almost over and Halloween is next week! CRAZY! This year has flown by and the holiday season is right around the corner. I thank you so much for visiting with me today and I hope your October has been good to you. I will end with this fun photo my sister shared, and I hope she doesn’t mind me sharing here on my blog. It’s a sweet photo of Gracie who is up in horsey heaven now (my best friends horse). She was taught to smile for a treat, and I’m smiling right back! And there is a cool tree in the background!

I have to thank Natalie who hosts the #weekendcoffeeshare link up and for Dawn who is hosting the #walktober and I will share a link to her blog. I also want to thank all my friends and family who made my birthday so special and my sister who shared this photo, which I think of as a gift to me as I just LOVE IT!!

Have a wonderful day!

Love, Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share: October Fun, Love Fall!

Welcome to my weekend coffee share! I still get an occasional rose bloom so I thought I would share. We are still pretty warm here, actually more than warm ~ how about hot! It’s cooling off at night though and we do get marine layer clouds that roll in through the night as the warm air over the ocean creates the low clouds and even some fog from time to time. I love the Fall as we are slowly seeing the leaves change.

We can see the change in weather in our horses too. They have been shedding their summer coats as they grow their winter coats. Murphy doesn’t get very long or thick hair in the winter which I am grateful for as if they grow too long, and it stays warm here they can get pretty hot during the day. I had to body clip (shave) off the hair on my horse Zack as he turned into a wooly bear every winter! I’ve shared that I body clip other’s horses for them. It’s a messy job with hair going everywhere but it’s fairly easy and they pay me for the job. I am body clipping a girlfriend’s horse this next Tuesday as a matter of fact!

I’m keeping busy working during the week and taking care of Murphy every morning. I shared that I was working on an ocean cross stitch which I’ve completed and I have started a new one. Here is a photo of the new one so far, I am almost half way complete. 😀

I made the photo into a square and it zoomed in, so close up! Haha, the whole thing will be twice this size as this is just the top half of the project. I am working on the sun in the left corner. I thought I shared my finished ocean project and was going to link it here, but I can’t find it and as I look I don’t think I shared the completed cross stitch. I’m also going to share what the one above looks like completed. The saying is a Native American Proverb. I’m loving how this is turning out so I may keep this one and gift the other one I just finished. I haven’t decided yet!

The ocean cross stitch was suppose to be stitched on a dark blue or navy blue fabric which would have made the white stitching pop even more. I happened to have this gray fabric and thought it would still look good. I think I will frame it with a navy blue border as that should help it pop better, I hope! I am always changing things up. The new one I am working on called for the white fabric as you can see in the photo of the completed project. I decided to follow directions with this one and I am falling in Love with it!

I just love creating things with my hands. Much like sharing and writing here, the creative process is so rewarding. I am wanting to crochet, but if I start another project I won’t have time to finish what I am working on, so I tell myself one thing at a time! I am more motivated to complete one when I stick to it so I can move on to what stirs me to make next!! 😀 Do you like to do crafts of any kind? I know many find creativity outside too, for example in their gardens. Or playing and creating music, I miss my piano!!

Murphy turned out in a large paddock!

He’s settled into his new digs!

Onto my other love, my outdoor time with Mr. Murphy! He has settled in so nicely at the new barn. We are slowly developing a nice routine. It was much like the routine I had at his old barn but one huge difference is minus the grassy areas. I do not miss all the grass at all. It became a challenge walking over the grass and try and keep Murphy from stopping to eat. He is so huge, I had to create a queue for him to understand we were all done grazing. Here at the new place there isn’t any grass and he gets plenty of hay to eat almost all day long. He is more respectful and pays attention since there is no “candy” he is walking over, haha! What a nice change!!

My tack room

Looking at the arena from tack room

Smaller arena for lunging

The arena is AMAZING! So much bigger and the footing/ground is sublime!

I am so excited I can ride any day I want to and every day if I so choose too! There are no turn outs allowed in the arena. This means it is open and available for any rider at any time. We did ask about the rain and the owner said he will close it for one day and then drag it and it will be ready the next day. That isn’t a problem, and it keeps the footing better so they know how to take care of arenas! I am beyond happy making this move to this new barn. I missed riding, as it was very difficult at the old barn to get the arena to ride. They use the arena there as a turn out where people leave their horses lose sometimes for hours. I did use it for a turn out too, but I watched my time where many didn’t seem to care.

Murphy learning to tie near my tack room!

All done and eating his grain! Yummy!

Murphy up close and kissable!

I just want to kiss his nose! Such a sweetheart! He did really good for the first time tied to the rail near my tack room. There was a rail just like this one at the old barn that I had been practicing with so he knows he’s to stand there but he plays with the lead rope and sometimes unties himself! Haha, silly guy! Also, I am too lazy to take off the chain over his nose, but I never tie him or attach the cross ties to the chain as that would be dangerous if he pulled back or spooked. Same at the tie rail. The lead rope is attached directly to his halter. You can see the clip in the above photo is attached to the halter. I need the chain because he knows he is huge and he knows without the chain he can pull Mom around and isn’t as respectful. Anyways, I can go on and on with all the horsy fun I have each day. This is long enough and I thank you for sharing a cup of coffee with me today as I muse about my sweet Murph and my crafty fun.

I usually thank Natalie for all she does for the link ups to our coffee shares but she is on a blogging break as she has had a death in her family. My heart goes out to you Natalie and your family, sending hugs. I enjoy sharing with you all. I hope you all have a wonderful week and October! This is my favorite month of the year, my birthday is next weekend and I will be spending it up north with my daughter! YAY! ❤

Horse crazy, crafty loving gal,

~Diana ❤