Sunday, June 15, 2008

Dressage and an Apple Tree



Doesn't he just look eager to hit the arena? I got up early and managed to be out at the barn and tacked up by 7:30, so I had the whole arena to myself. We worked on transitions, the bane of my existence. Dressage is supposed to be one smoothly flowing river, but I am more of the mind where life comes in segments. "Done!" "Next?" Kawhump. We got some good leg yield though, and all the other horses in the pasture came to the arena door to watch and make snide comments.

Since it is Father's Day I am thinking of my dear dad and my grampie, who taught me to appreciate flowers. When I was 3 years old, Grampie told me to look carefully into the face of a pansy and listen hard, because it is telling me something. I remember reaching up to hold his work-rough hand, and staring intently into the pansy's face, and listening for all I was worth:



I never heard the message, which was probably something W.C. Fields-ish like "Go away kid, you bother me". But it started me looking at flowers. And my dad was a rose gardener extraordinaire.

So I have planted a new apple tree, in spite of my unbroken streak of bad luck with fruit trees. If you look closely and listen you may hear this little tree saying something too:

5 comments:

3pennyjane said...

E tan e epi tas, lil tree!

Flying Lily said...

3PJ: Too true. It will probably be ON the shield, rather than with it. Esp if the shield is a wheelbarrow, and the destination is my personal brushpile of shame, where the gardening boo-boos get hidden under last year's autumn leaves...Well now that I've despaired of this little apple tree, maybe he will be a sort of Nietzschean contrarian and thrive! "Wille zur Macht" anytree?!

Grey Horse Matters said...

Hi,
I've just found your blog and find it very interesting. I love your picture of Gentle John. The pansy's are beautiful and I am sure the apple tree will grow and you will be eating apples in a few years and so will your horse. By the way he looks thrilled to be saddled up and ready to go!

photogchic said...

Just came across your blog. I am a native Minnesotan exiled to Portland, Oregon:-) What part of MN are you in? Looking forward to reading your blog...will get you on my blog roll.

Flying Lily said...

Greyhorse: thanks for the optimism! For some reason I have a perfect record of watching little fruit trees die in my yard. This morning I chased a deer away from the new one. Poor thing must have nearly had a heart attack: crazed woman in bathrobe comes screaming up the driveway...

Photogchic: You can never really leave Minnesota ya know; it gets into your essence. Pass the hotdish. Thanks for stopping by! I love Portland; do you?