Yesterday we had a taste of summer. Low 70s! Janet took Tim and me on an adventure through her neck of the woods. First we took a hike on the Old Airline Trail – can’t remember which section – that runs across eastern Connecticut. It’s one of those Rails-to-Trails projects. We crossed over a very tall viaduct and were treated to lovely views, although everything is still brown and gray from winter. The trail also cut through some hills so we saw a lot of water from the saturated earth dripping down the moss and rocks bordering much of the trail.
Next stop was the Hebron Maple Festival. By then it was lunch time and uncomfortably hot in the sun. It was a relief when we got to the chainsaw woodcarving demonstration that was tucked in the woods on a back road, and of course we bought some real maple syrup!
And finally we stopped at Tangletree Farm in Colchester where Roger had been joyfully riding his horse, Tsultan. Janet introduced us to all the horses in the barn, including a new foal. He was born on Saint Patrick’s day, so his name is, of course, Patrick. He was very busy nursing so I couldn’t get a better picture of him!
Also, I did a brave thing, brave for me. I fed Janet’s quarter horse, Cruiser, a couple of carrots and actually petted his nose! When I was in eighth grade a girl in my class fell off a horse, broke her neck, and died one weekend. It was such a shock to come back to school on the following Monday and hear this news! And back in those days they did not have grief counselors come to a school to help students cope with their losses. The whole episode left me profoundly afraid of horses. But I have a feeling that this may be about to change.
Needless to say, we were pretty tuckered out by the time we got home last night. Today we’ve been catching up with computer stuff and a stew is in the slow cooker, and dinner is smelling good!
Sounds like a wonderful day! And what a sweet foal…beautiful.
Thanks for stopping by, Kathy!
Now I feel I’ve been on this trip with you. I can almost smell that food cooking, too! I think you had mentioned the Rails for Trails project on Gaia; it’s fascinating!
Barbara, the trail sounds very nice and how lucky you were to see this foal. I can understand your fear of horses after what happened – that’s a horrible story.
I was with a friend who was reluctant to get on a horse and she finally agreed … there were four of us, her older sister and her sister’s friend, her and me. All of us but Debbie had ridden before. Her horse ran past mine and spooked my horse and it reared up and its hoof struck Debbie in the calf.
This happened in Canada (Amherstburg) and we came right home and went to the E.R. over here – nothing was broken/fractured, just a bad bruise, but it was scary for her and me (good thing I was hanging on). We’ve lost touch, but I’m sure she never rode again. I never did. That was in 1972, the day Nixon resigned the presidency. I remember going into the E.R. and multiple TVs were playing that news. Her sister and her friend had taken a personal day, thinking we would spend the day doing something different – that we did.
Wow, that does sound like a very frightening incident, Linda! What a relief that nobody was more seriously injured. It’s interesting how often we can link big news events with big things happening in our daily lives. I never did get over my fear of horses, even though people who love horses keep coming into my life. I made friends with the wife of one of Tim’s ham radio friends and she owned two horses, too. I “met” the horses across the fence once and took some nice pictures of them but just couldn’t bring myself to get any closer.
I can certainly understand your reluctance to be around horses – that’s a very scary situation to have happened to someone you knew. I remember that distinctly … people in the E.R. waiting room were glued to the television. It’s like we all will remember what we were doing when 9/11 happened or when JFK was assassinated. I was still living in Canada when JFK was killed, but we had an urgent message on the Public Address system at school which told us the news story and I remember watching the highlights of the funeral on TV with my parents.
I remember watching the highlights of the funeral on TV with my parents, too. I also remember my school bus driver harshly reprimanding a couple of boys who were joking around about the assassination as they were boarding the school bus for the afternoon trip home. The bus driver’s outburst was very unsettling to me. I was six years old so I must have been in first grade.
It was a very solemn time in Canada – Canadians sympathized with the U.S. in the loss of their leader. I was seven years old in 1963. The principal, Mr. Buckley, made the announcement on the crackly P.A. system, which was rarely used for announcements of any kind. I can imagine that would be unsettling having the bus driver reprimand the young boys in front of the rest of the children – did the boys not understand the gravity of the situation at that time?
I meant to mention last night Barbara that the website had been changed as to the Maple Festival in Hebron – it is now, all these years later since your blog post: https://www.ctmaple.org/hebron-maple-festival.html
Thanks for the update, Linda. I removed the old link and looked at the new one. It’s so interesting that the weekend of the festival is about a week earlier now. Because of climate change the sap starts and stops running sooner. When we visited Goshen Hill Maples in 2022 for the traditional weekend the sap had already stopped running and they had already finished with their last boil of the season. It was a fun custom to celebrate the equinox but I guess those days have gone forever.
You’re welcome Barbara and I meant to tell you that Friday after I used the link – they’ve expanded the info I guess. That is interesting about the sap running earlier. I saw the festival was last weekend, the 15th and 16th – that’s too bad that the celebration no longer coincides with the equinox. The weather patterns and changes boggle the mind. My favorite meteorologist was asked why we are having so many windy days – not just because it is March like the children’s rhyme either. I’ve been noticing gusty winds for months now and he said it was the unsettled weather pattern that is causing the high winds. Gone forever are the seasons as we remember them.