Leaving Sedona

An early start today, in order to drive over to the White Mountains on the other side of Arizona and have enough time to stop and start over and over again and take photos to my hearts content - the first few photos were taken just a few miles out of Sedona, as the colour of the rocks start to change - today it's cooler (and colder by the minute as I leave Sedona and as you can see, clouds in the skies - though still breathtakingly beautiful) - the next hotel is at 8,500 ft. elevation and I know for a fact already that it is perishingly cold up there, so this is time to enjoy the last few rays of sunshine and warmth for a few days.

As we climb upwards, the landscape and colours change dramatically... the red fades and a khaki/sand colour predominates.

The sun filters over the mountain tops and gives a little warmth to the chilly valleys; I've never seen this landscape in the summer, I can only imagine how beautiful it must be.

Cliimbing up through the mountains, these silver coloured trees dominate along the sides of the roads.

Then, we start to see (and feel!) snow... I'm sure it won't be the last - when I was here last time I went up the state as far as the Grand Canyon (actually I travelled further than that) and it was knee deep in snow.

This pic is only about 17 miles outside of Sedona, and I can't believe the difference in temperature and the landscape.



February....

Hmmm...ever had that feeling you were meeting yourself going backwards or is that just a northern expression?  How about this one....one step forward two steps backward??  Or this one - something about a fly with a blue bottom???  (last one was cleaned up in case you are a little bit delicate....)

Its been just crazy hectic round here.   I've been charging up and down the country going to trade fairs and seeing suppliers and sourcing new stock - I love doing this, its always nice buying gorgeous new stuff and then dreaming of the jewels I'll make....not so nice are the bills I am expecting (gulp, wince.....) 

The Funniest Thing So Far This Week...

I have to share this with you...all this snow has even turned the police into children....

The Beautiful Merlin In The Snow....

I have to share this....this is my lovely boy, whom I just took for a walk...he's all wrapped up in his cosy rug and we're out enjoying the snow...its amazing how many people we meet out there on Carrington Moss who are walking their dogs...I think some of them decide to give up on drinking when they see a horse on a lead...but its a nice way of making friends and interesting to realise that some people have never even touched a horse in their lives - last year I went past what I can only describe as a pack of hoodies and despite my being on my horse's back and being armed with a whip (the whip is for shoving down boots just in case of human attack, never for using on my horse you understand) I have to confess to being completely terrified, especially when they all started to surround us - but all these kids wanted to do was stroke Merlin and feed him grass (the actual green, growing out of the ground type, not 'grass'...heavens, the horse is nutty enough without feeding him mind-altering drugs....!!) and we soon realised that despite my being on a horse and despite their being terrifying hoodies, we were all actually quite nice people.   So there's a lesson, get a horse, hug a hoodie.....

The most snow I have ever seen in my entire life....

Just look at the snow on my tree!!  I bought the house because of this tree (ok, the studio was pretty cool too...)

New Car with snow optional extras!!!!!  So much better when they start, aren't they?

  Below - Spot the offending snowman...bah, humbug.....(clue - left hand side, large white thing...)

Its rare to see snow in these quantities in Britain, but around these parts (Cheshire/Manchester) its actually even rarer to see snow that stays on the ground - I cannot ever remember seeing so much - I just watched in astonishment as it came down, and down and down - and everyone was out building snowmen...someone down the road made a twelve foot high one and decorated it with bricks, which really wasn't the brightest of ideas (saw them taking the bricks out rather sheepishly later - he probably heard me ranting to Mark about taking him to court if the bricks fell out on my car!)...but it was like a huge adventure...driving was perilous (and yes - this is a photo of my NEW car!) but everywhere people were wrapped up warmly and despite the entire population of Sale driving around like snails, people were courteous, people were nice, and I even saw some unsolicited smiling...so hey, snow, snow and snow some more!!

Its So Cold...........

Oh my goodness, how cold is it?   Yesterday I took the car out to the stables and I was pleased with myself when I took a photo of the temperature at minus 7 degrees.   Last night I went back to the stables and it was minus 13 degrees (I'd forgotten the camera). 

My pussycat Mia just looked at this white stuff for a few days and crossed her legs, and now she goes out, does whatever a cat has to do and comes in looking quite disgusted - there are little paw tracks across the nine inches of snow we currently have and we are forecast about another ten inches tomorrow - if that happens she'll just sink into it - its a good thing she's got some black on her or I'd never find her (and of course, she has been offered the convenience of an indoor loo its just she prefers to go outside).     

Link: Its Colder Than A Freezer In Cheshire UK
The days are so beautiful - I have never seen such wonderful blue skies in the winter time - Mark tells me this is what it is like when he goes ski-ing (it always seems completely crackers to me to go out in the cold voluntarily, throw yourself down a slippery slope covered in ice and call it fun - on the other hand, it probably seems crackers to other people that I get on half a ton of unpedictable animal who could throw me off at any moment and call THAT fun....) - I just saw a report that claimed that the UK was colder than the South Pole.

Happy New Year One And All

Happy New Year One And All, I hope you had a lovely Christmas and New Year - ours was quiet which was lovely - I did get round to putting up a tree and it looked gorgeous, I baked and I made Christmas Dinner (twice) and today its my Mum's birthday so I took her a pile of gifts yesterday.  Father Christmas brought me a lovely camera which I had been wanting for months - just a little digital thing that is light and sturdy enough for me to have in my handbag and to take on rides with me when I go out with Merlin.

For the first time that I can remember we had snow over the Christmas period which was so beautiful - the first night it happened, I crept down the stairs at 3am and we've put tiny white lights on the tree outside the front of the house and I opened the front door a crack and it was all so white and beautiful and peaceful - and brrrrrrr.....COLD!!

How amazingly fast time passes - I can remember when we passed from 1999 to 2000 and how everyone was terrified that their computers were going to seize up, the internet would crash and airliners would fall from the sky...I can also remember being out on the pavement at midnight outside a friends' house, celebrating and 'bringing in the new year' and a random stranger stopped and kissed me.   I was totally bemused by that.   And now - 2010 - I am fascinated by the Edwardian period and I was thinking recently how amazed my great-grandparents would be at all the electronic wizardry we have these days - even something we now consider as basic as a digital camera - I find that period fascinating because of the huge social and

economic changes there were and also how it seemed to be the last age of innocence before the world wars came along, before a generation of young men were wiped out, even the changes from Victorian fashion to the flappers in the 1920's is an astonishing change; I find the history of the Titanic fascinating and of course we are not far off the 100 year anniversary of the sinking.

Twas the Night Before Christmas, And My House Smelt of Orange Polenta Cake

It has been snowing like you would not believe in the past five days.  I've never seen snow this early - it usually comes at the end of January for a couple of weeks, and its just beautiful to look out on the garden which is as white as white as can be.  

Horse care has been more of a challenge - trying to convince a healthy, raring to go half-ton horse that he needs to stay in his stable for the duration for his own safety is not at all easy...he's been out in the field in the snow a little but our livery-yard owners have decided its too dangerous to put horses out because of the ice that follows the snow for the moment, so we are all confined to out stables (well, ok - the horses are - the owners can come and go as they please I guess) - I've been taking Merlin for walks, letting him run and roll in the indoor riding school and today I gave him a massage.  I wouldn't mind someone do all that for me!  He seems to be ok, and hopefully the snow and ice won't last too long.

Let It Snow...A Horse Owner's Perspective

Its the first time in years I can remember seeing snow pre-Christmas - I looked out the window last night and yikes, its snowing!   Is it snowing specially to make a point to all those people holed up in Copenhagen right now?   It looks so beautiful, so clean and so amazing and it was tempting to wrap a big blanket round myself and huddle round the fire with egg-nog (to be honest, I've never had egg nog, so being English it would probably be tea...?)

But then I remember that beautiful horse of mine and my conscience prods me into life - brrrr --