In which photos with blue sky and ears means that my life is very good

Suddenly, it's Spring in the Swamplands.

Pre-ride photo

The skies are increasingly blue, and the temperatures are finally above 50 degrees during the daytime.

The Usual Suspects hit the trails again

It's still cold at night, of course, and we have heavy frost on the ground most mornings, so I have to wait another week to plant the beans and tomatoes--those don't go in the ground until Mother's Day at the earliest, even though the forecast says we may hit !! 80 !! degrees !! this weekend.  

It's pretty obvious how I entertain myself while waiting for the approved planting dates.

Ears!  Sky!

Patty is getting Flower ready for their first long-distance event:  the 25-mile Limited Distance ride at Mt Adams.  She's pretty excited--Patty, I mean.  Flower isn't a tremendously excitable mare...which is a virtue as far as I'm concerned!

Patty and Flower

Sirie and Ariana will be going along on the LD as the "anchors."

Sirie and Ariana

Looks like Monica and Danny will be doing the same distance, as well as Duana and Hana, which makes a nice mix of "green" with "experience."

Post-ride photo

I wasn't sure that Fee and I were going to get enough "trail time" after Home on the Range to prepare for Mt Adams.  Luckily, the weather has cooperated since I returned from Texas, so we're going to enter the 50-miler.

Ready for a challenge

Dory and Spot did well on the 75-miler at HOTR, so they're signed up for the 100.

Mt Adams is the ride where I did my first-and-so-far-only 100 back in 2007, with the Toad.  It took us almost the full allotment of time, but we finished, and it is truly a beautiful ride.  Someday I hope to do it again--with Fiddle!  But not this year.

Fee is not only fit for a 50, she's also also showing advanced signs of the improvements we've seen since her spay surgery almost exactly 1 year ago:

"Give us a snuggle?"

Patty would never have wanted to hug the Dragon last Spring.

I've worked for years getting Fee to accept human touch, but until about 6 months ago, she never really enjoyed it.  Fixing her wonky hormones made a huge difference to this mare--and to everyone else around her!

I've been doing a lot of solo riding as well.

Clear blue skies, and a view of Puget Sound from the top of the Monument hill

Fee and I really love getting out for a few hours, away from everybody and everything.

Camera flare is always so dramatic.  

Biggify the picture and you might be able to spy Mt Rainier
floating on the horizon above Fee's ears

And of course, the Dragon especially enjoys what happens when we get home:

"Foooooooooooood!"

 Do you know this part?  About it being good?  Because it really, really is good.