Month: November 2006

I awaken to oodles of snow sinking from the darkened sky and an unwelcomed phone call from Eric letting me know Nicole passed last night. The rabbi was presently there. Eric would phone me later to connect.

One minute someone is there and the next second they can be gone but God did she have an incredible life! A life ends but the little pitter patter of feet on the snowy pavement and the splatter of wet tires rolling past me below moves on.

I will miss you my “cutie patoo-tee” and may your memories live on through the multitude of lives you have touched here in Ashland and throughout the universe! You will always be my fellow gypsy soul, cusp companion and that little mentored voice in my head that pushes me to make sound yet often wickedly fabulous decisions in life!

During the holidays, Ashland turns into a little gingerbread house of a town with it’s festival of lights. Every evening, the whole downtown is engulfed in a show of lights outlining Ashland’s favorite hot spots. This morning I woke with hopes of getting to see Nicole, getting myself settled for a bit, having an incredible work session on Joewell and going to cirque class with Susan. What I wasn’t planning on was waking to fabulous snow covered mountains and a crisp chill in the air. I quickly checked the weather in Düsseldorf to find it QUITE a bit WARMER over there. So those nay-sayers telling me I’ll hate the winter in Germany and Holland and the cold will be too much for me probably hadn’t thought that after 8 years living in snowy southern Oregon I might be a tiny, tiny bit prepared for the chill!

So I’m still here in Ashland and still spending a good portion of my evenings at my long time home away from home, The Black Sheep. Over the years, I’ve probably spent more time out at the Sheep than anywhere else in Ashland. I’m greeted by a few new faces that could likely become a few new friends yet still enamored with long time close pals like Kari. Kari and her brilliant lemon pictures were taken to the next level this past night. The photo perspective is from behind the bar, on the ground up to the starry skied ceiling of the Sheep and into the amazing glass blown light installation by local Ashland artist.

Thanksgiving is approaching (my first one stateside in several years) and I’m happy to be sharing it with Gary, Pam, Abbey and family! Overall, it’s been fabulous getting to spend some time back home in Ashland!

Well there are not really stockings (see photo) and it’s not even December yet but there IS a fireplace and Picollo WAS enjoying it so it just seems like such an “it’s almost Christmas” kind of scene that I couldn’t resist snapping a cute pict of him.

The re-scheduling has been hectic but things are starting to fall into place now. Joewell has his second set of blood-work tomorrow morning and hopefully this time it will be dated correctly and all will be well in the universe. I’ve found a few flats online near Krefeld that look very simple and cute and perfect for Picollo and myself but I think I’m going to wait to setup something until I’m actually there and know a bit about the areas, etc. Debra has connected me with a fabulous friend of hers living in Hamburg named Steffie and she’s offered up some helpful notes!

I’m heading into town today to spend the holiday week at my old apartment downtown. Thanks Sage, Elise and Riley! I’ll have the perfect location to watch Ashland’s Festival of Lights on Friday and I’m pretty excited about sharing my Thanksgiving holiday (my first one stateside in a couple years) with Gary, Pam and Abbey and helping Susan (and crew) decorate the tree at The Sheep. I’m not sure what my Christmas will be like over in Germany so it’s the perfect pre-Christmas, Christmas!

So yes, yes, yes… It’s a rough life but somebody has to do it! Joewell is absolutely loving his enormous 16 by 16 padded stall. He can hear the trickling of the water fountain out front rather than having a waterfall coming INTO his stall from a broken rain guard. Ha!

Yes it’s chilly in Ashland but the barn is warm, the alleyways are paved in rubber bricks, the tack stalls are equipped with heaters, he has a comfy turnout next a fellow Trakehner named Karoe (see photo), a bright arena to work in with a chill atmosphere. Needless-to-say, we are all getting spoiled with our stay at my friend’s facility AND it’s a good thing we’re so comfy as there was an error made when dating Joewell’s blood-work resulting in a complete reschedule of our trip! Overall it has been a HUGE stress having to reschedule my flights, ground transports, not to mention the changes, etc have lost/cost me a little over a grand thus far.

Today might have well been a Friday the 13th for me! Bummer!
We’re rescheduled to depart on the 30th of November so I’ll be driving down on the 28th to Los Angeles to organize my Jeep for packing/dropping at port, Joewell will transport on the 29th and my little family should be in Krefeld, Germany the afternoon/evening of the 1st of December!

It was a long and EXTREMELY wet drive down from the Seattle area on the 6th of November. Dr. John was a bit late in arriving to finish Joewell’s final paperwork so Morgan and I got a later start than planned. BUT!.. at least we were able to leave the farm as it was flooding central mere hours after we departed.

About 7 hours, 1 mocha, 2 Red Bulls and several bags of chips later we (albeit a bit “cracked out” from excessive caffeine) arrived in Ashland at my transitional home. It was bittersweet saying good-bye to Morgan and I think I’m actually gonna miss being picked on by him! Hehe! Thanks for the hauling Morgan and EVF!

So Joewell, Picollo and myself got settled into Lara’s facility and headed to my second home in ye ole Ashland, The Black Sheep for a pint of their finest, good cheer and catching up with some near and dear friends!

So I’ve been meaning to start a blog for a while now anyway and several of the Donida crew asked me for regular updates of my travels and training with Joewell so there you have it.

Not quite sure where I’m going with this so I’m just planning to journalize travels, horses, picollo and life and see how it develops! Perhaps this blog will carry over into a HorseGirlTV blog or just point to it? We’ll see!

This photo is from one of my last days up near Seattle. It’s Chelsea and I trying to keep warm at a HorseGirlTV shoot! I’m gonna miss you Chels but hopefully we’ll get to hang out this summer and catch a few European horse shows together!