These longer days are full, and I am tired in the evenings from too many projects and too much fun. Today was beautiful, though a little chilly. A greeting from Tom Morris is always a nice start.
The birds were hungry and there was a lot of birdsong this morning. I think they are looking for partners, with Spring on the doorstep.
Yellow shafted flicker 
The yellow shafts 
Delicate mockingbird and hefty dove 
A pair of cardinals and a hairy woodpecker 
Mockingbird on the crabapple tree 
Mockingbird in flight 
Pine siskin, or female finch? 
Cardinal 
Junco – soon to fly north for summer 
Goldfinches
Jane and Derry arrived before I was ready, which is normal operating procedure. Luckily, Jane is very tolerant of my poor time management skills. Derry and Bart were good. We didn’t get any pictures (I forgot my camera and my phone) but we worked on trot cavaletti and weird exercises we made up to challenge ourselves. Jane won the competition, and it was great fun.
Jane and Derry arriving
Stone was thirsty. I love watching horses drink. Oisin respectfully waited his turn.
After the chestnut horses, Jane was happy for a chance to ride Oisin while I rode Stone. I went to catch Oisin and discovered that he had removed his fancy new fly mask! Not only that, he left it where I could see what he thinks of it! I have no idea how he managed that. He is ignoring the mask mandate, and being rude about it.
Oisin hopes I can understand: mask + poop = NO! 
Oisin is not mask compliant
Oisin was much happier with Stone along for the ride, and both horses were well behaved. We did cavaletti with them, too. Here is Jane on Oisin demonstrating how to do it.
I heard that a new reader of the blog likes black cats, and yellow ones. Her name is Gigi, and she is a younger reader. I am very excited to reach a new demographic. Here are some black and yellow cat pictures.
Licorice, the mysterious black cat waits for food to be brought to the shed 
Marmalade eats food in the shed 
Tom Morris basks in the sun on the back porch (to the dismay of the birds) 
I told Tom Morris about Gigi – he is bashful 
Tom Morris values his sleep 
Jane and Rosie, the bowling ball black cat
Twizzler is almost black. He and Skittle are very good at coming down the ladder.
Cora cannot come down the ladder because she is too fat! When she goes up to the loft, I have to rescue her.
Cora Dora
In the studio, Harry changed his finishing tool, which livened up the sculpture even more.
Stay safe, stay well, stay masked. Talking to you, Oisin! Peace.