Saturday, January 16, 2010

Back in the Saddle Again!


Hey there! I've been out on the range rounding up research for my southwest historical.  Most of my research to this point takes place in southwestern Colorado and northeast New Mexico.  I've been having a blast getting to know old ghost towns, early settlements, mining communities, historic ruins, etc.  And I've managed to rope in 9,000 words since the onset of this grand adventure.

So if you wondered where I've been in blogging land, here I am. I've also had a rough migraine week.  Could it have anything to do with the amount of time I spend on the computer? Don't even think it! My brain is in overdrive so that could be it, too.

Since I'm in horsey mode, I thought I might share with you a few horse photos I took when I lived next to a small horse farm (4 horses and a plethora of other creatures).  I used to do horse sit when our neighbors were away for days and weeks at a time, once I had them for 6 weeks.  I grew up with horses so it was lots of fun getting to spend so much time with them again. Some of my favorite memories are when I was a teen and I'd take my horse, Ginger, out on the trails (tromping ground of the Wampanoag Indians). I used to take lots of pictures of her, too, with my Kodak 110mm Instamatic Camera!  My Mom was a champion horsewoman, and we cheered her on weekly at horseshows during the season, as she showed Bar T Sentinel.  She also had a horse named Firefly. I'm using his name for one of the horses in my story. It's kind of fun getting to use a little of my horse knowledge in my writing.  Enjoy the photos!


See the deer in the left hand corner of the coral?
The heard of deer came into the coral with the
horses at the same time every day.





I just happened to catch Chief playfully jumping in the air!





Dinner time.  Beau (right) is an adopted wild Mustang from the west.
  In front is Buster, a Maine Coon Cat - very friendly with the horses.





Here's Indigo, each eye a different color. There's the blue one!






Do you have any favorite childhood recollections that you can use in your writing?

10 comments:

  1. Welcome back! What fun adventures:) Love the pictures, too. Thanks for sharing them!

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  2. Good to see you back. I noticed your absence! Missed you.

    Love the horse pics. I'm enamored of horses and love the idea of them. Writing 18C fiction, of course horses are all over my stories. But no matter how I've tried, from childhood up to the past few years, I can't get over my fear while in their presence or in the saddle. It's not a great fear, but it's enough to communicate itself and the naughty creatures take full advantage of it! :-)

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  3. Hi Carla -

    We missed you! Sorry to hear about the migraine. I can empathize with you on that one.

    Great pics. I'm buried in research myself.

    My childhood memories are waiting for the right opportunity to jump into a story.

    Blessings,
    Susan :)

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  4. Love the photos. Love the cat. I had a Maine Coon. She was something else. Quite a character.

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  5. Sounds like some mighty fun research! I grew up with horses and cattle ranching myself, and not surprisingly my first book featured both. Horses continue to crop up in all my stories.

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  6. First off, sorry you've been suffering from migraines. Hope they ease up and give you some peace.

    I've always wondered about researching a book via the internet versus of actually traveling to a location. It's nice to know that armchair (or keyboard) traveling can work!

    Childhood recollections? LOL. Lots of them and they could fill many books. We had a haunted house on our street! And I explored a haunted cave with my friend once. And we were sure that there were smugglers at the train depot. And the man we followed around one day who called the police on us? He was soooo guilty of something! Do you dectect a theme here? I was a Nancy Drew wannabe.

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  7. Sorry about your migraines! That's no fun, but I suppose it's a hazard of the job. THough I don't get those, I get eye strain. Welcome back to the blogging :D

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  8. never lived on a ranch but love to read about them. I enjoyed your blog.


    mamat2730(at)charter(dot)net

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  9. It sounds like you're having a wonderful time with your research! I love your horsey photos. Lovely :)

    Jen

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