2. #DSFWeekly Rewind: An afternoon on Assateague Island

A walk on the beach.

Often we feel time to be linear, inexorable, suffocating. At other moments we find it oceanic. We kind of swim in it. We expect physicists to come up with an explanation, but we don’t find one, and come back to our intuitive use of the concept. But there are also moments when time appears to be, to say it in one way, both vertical and horizontal, both “single-minded,” monotonous, unalterable, and multi-dimensional, infinite. When a few people come together, I often have wondered if each person’s amount of years was not being added to the amount of years of all the others, so that we were representing together much more than our single self. And if you add up the simultaneous ages of people, animals, plants, objects, the age of celestial bodies and so on, you realize that we are living in the unfolding of the infinite. But why bother? I think because we need to keep in mind the immensity of being, in spite of our fragility and mortality.

~ Etel Adnan

Dinner time.

I decided to join Tara’s #DSFWeeklyRewind this week. I actually did a few things over the past couple of days that are worth mentioning.  For instance, M and I went to see the film Coco on Thursday evening.  I loved it.  We saw it in an RPX theater which I’ve seen described as similar to IMAX with a smaller screen.  I don’t know if I’d compare it to an IMAX theater, but the seats were comfy, and the picture and sound were pretty amazing.  The really strange thing about the whole experience is that we were the only people in the theater.  Seriously.  Just the two of us.

We don’t normally go the theater for what is billed as a children’s movie (although, now that I think about it, why not?), but Coco has gotten some good reviews and it looked like something fun to see on the big screen.  It was.  I highly recommend it.

Two near the road.

Yesterday’s visit to the beach was another interesting event this week.  The wild horses are putting on their winter coats, becoming shaggier as the weather gets cooler.  Oh!  Speaking of weather, we’re expecting our first snow of the season tonight and tomorrow.  I’m very excited about it. Snow started falling just a few minutes ago.  Nothing is sticking just yet but if we get as much as they’re calling for (4-6 inches) then I’m sure there will be some accumulation even if the ground is still fairly warm.

Munching on the grasses.

The last time M and I went back to Ohio for a visit with family we brought back our cross-country skis and boots.  I’m hoping the weather prognosticators are right and we’ll get enough snow to use them tomorrow.  This area is perfect for cross-country skiing, and we have plenty of trails right here on the ranch we can use.  If we get bored with the trails, we can probably go out and ski on the roads since it takes them a while to plow the roads around here.

They don’t change position much when they’re eating.

Back to the beach, it was beautiful and very peaceful out there yesterday.  M and I almost had the place to ourselves except for the usual critters.  We saw one or two other people drive by when we were visiting with the horses, and there was an RV out by the bay at sunset.

A young one.

I used my new lens to take some portraits of the horses.  In case you’re wondering about the lens, it’s a 50mm lens.  Karma, who doesn’t seem to be blogging anymore, calls it her Nifty Fifty lens and I can see why.  It is indeed a nifty little lens.  It’s lighter than the other lenses I have, and it a good little all-around lens to have for portraits and some intimate landscape type of shots.  It is also said to be good for macro photography, something I played with a little in yesterday’s images.  After seeing some of the images Karma turned out when she was playing with her Nifty Fifty lens, I put it on my wishlist.  That was a few years ago.  This year I finally took a look at the pricing and it’s not expensive at all compared to most other lenses so I moved it up on my wishlist as a hint to M that it was something I’d like to have this year.  He’s very good at taking my hints and running with them.

Coming to check me out.

The only thing I didn’t like about using the lens while at Assateague is that it does not zoom at all.  If you want a close-up shot, you have to get close to do it.  With stationary objects, that’s not a problem.  With wild animals, it can be.

Getting a little too close.

The horses usually ignore me, but they were very curious yesterday.  I think that may be due to the decrease in visitors this time of year.  I found myself having to hustle away from the horses from time to time when one would decide to move closer and check me out.  Although they seem nice enough, they are wild and will bite or kick.  I don’t want to be on the receiving end of either of those things.  I generally observe the rule to stay at least a bus length (40 feet) away.

Walking away.

I reckon that’s about it for my version of the weekly rewind.  Thank you so much for all the wonderful birthday wishes left for me yesterday.  I’ll be responding to comments soon, and/or stopping by your place to see what you’re up to these days.

By the fence.

Thank you for stopping by today.  There won’t be anything to see except dark clouds at sunset today, but I might walk out to the dock anyhow just for the exercise and to enjoy the snow.  You’re welcome to join me.

Be good, be kind, be loving.  Just Be.  🙂

This is not a particularly good shot (who wants to look at the hind end of a horse?). It was the only one I managed to get that will show you why I know the horse on the left is a young one (and labeled it as such earlier in this post). Basically, her size and how she’s not quite filled out yet.

A few of the 10,000 reasons to be happy (grateful):  471)  Snow in the forecast!  (And we all know how much I love snow!)  472)  Freshly baked blueberry muffins for breakfast this morning. 473)  Earl Grey tea with my muffin.  474)  A fridge filled with fresh vegetables from the local farm market (we’re still able to get pumpkin, winter squashes, greens such as kale and spinach, and brussels sprouts that are all locally grown).  475)  A quiet day here on the ranch.

Snow!