More Flaxen Chestnuts

Ah, flaxen chestnuts. They are not quite the Malibu Barbies of the horse world that palominos are in my mind, but they still give off a fancy, summery vibe. Maybe that's why we've been encountering so many nice ones lately.

I have claimed the first one, Kite the Racking Horse. I haven't decided on her tack colors yet, but here's what she's currently wearing:

Flaxen chestnut #2 was Julie's birthday flute:

He didn't have a chance of joining the herd, but he sure is handsome!

Since I have claimed Kite, Bethany has claimed Widget, and Lily has claimed Sandstorm, it means the next addition to our herd should be Julie's. Little did she know that she'd soon have a doozy of a decision to make!

Altai and I recently fluted flaxen chestnut #3 among the blueberry bushes on Chilly Forest Isle. Check out that vivid avatar!

Her profile pic did not disappoint either! Deep blue eyes, lovely coloring, and picture-perfect markings:

Just look at that personality! It's a work of art! And she has +5/6 stats to boot! The air goes squeaking out of the balloon when you add up those stats, though. Only +21. Bummer!

Ever since I found her last Friday, Julie's been trying hard to resist her charms. Because of the +5/6 aspect of her stats, and because the one negative one is an amusing -13, it seems kind of a shame somehow to retire her to our Millennium Fields. (The stat chart disappears when you retire a horse.) Julie also happens to love AQH's, since she has one in real life. But would Lily ever agree to another low-stat horse so soon after Coquina? Highly doubtful.

Then, this morning, Bethany just happened to find this mare among the adoptable horse in the livery:

Wow, imagine that! Another flaxen chestnut mare with +5/6 stats!

However, this one is quite different. She is, dare I say it, not nearly as impressive to behold. As cool as Curlies are on HI2, they seem rather... unpolished in comparison to the sleek, perfectly-groomed AQH. She's pony-sized, the contrast of her body to her mane and tail is less dramatic, her markings are kind of awkward, and her personality is not nearly so charming. But don't write her off yet! Despite the -10, her stats add up to +88!

Now you see the dilemma, right? Which horse would Julie choose to fight for? Would breed, appearance, and personality trump stats? Or would stats and her desire to appease Lily/follow our unofficial rules win?

Bethany got impatient waiting for her to decide:

Can't you just imagine this scene, those curls bouncing around? XD

If you're curious, here is the Curly's avatar:

It's way more muted than the AQH's but quite nice in its own wet sand kind of way.

While we're waiting for Julie to decide, we're hanging on to both horses. I'm glad the call isn't up to me! I like the idea of a stubborn, unruly-haired little horse being chosen over one that seems more perfect. But I also think the AQH's -13 and her persona are pretty cool. We could call her "13 Below" or just "13" and have our third horse with a number name... Sorry, Julie, I know I'm not making this any easier. She has currently returned to her laptop and her story, probably to escape the pressure for a while.

In other news, our dun tobiano Waler did finally get retired to our Millennium Fields.

The rump art of a blue dragon inspired us to give him an Eragon-themed name. So, we chose Brisingr, the ancient word for "fire" in the series and also the name that Eragon (the rider of a blue dragon) gives to his blue sword.

Brisingr just happened to get quite a prominent spot on our ranch isle: he's to the right of our first row of hedges.

He'll be easy to find anytime we want to visit! =)

Summer Sizzle

Wow, here it is July 12 already and I still haven't posted about my birthday! I've been kind of... okay... really obsessed with a story I'm writing. Nearly everything else took a back seat for awhile. (Sorry sisters, Allegro, Bingo, and my HI2 horses...) 

But anyway, I did have a birthday back on Sunday, June 30. The insta-summer weather that Lily talked about in her last post hasn't gone anywhere. The high on my birthday was a toasty 86 degrees. I'm so glad we weren't trying to camp in the backyard!

I didn't play HI2 for long that day, but Ghirardelli and I did head out to Bend Isle to flute my birthday wild.

Felicity's Swedish Warmblood mare has some serious competition in the profile pic and avatar categories. This stallion is one handsome dude!

And here's the June horse on Mom's work calendar:

(Mom apologizes for how horribly un-centered this is.
She snapped this quickly around 7 am, so we're cutting her some slack.)

Well, their bodies match! The rest not so much. XD

As great as these both are, what really made my birthday was the June 29/30 dog on Mom's page-a-day calendar:

At first glance, I thought it was real too.
=^)

No other big HI2 happenings to report. Like I said, I've been ensconced in my story, and I don't think my sisters have been very active on the game lately either.

I did find an awkward screenshot Lily took of a recent flute, though:

Also, earlier today, Bethany and Volante found this pretty Standardbred dipping her toes in the water. (I guess it must be hot in HI2 too, at least on the non-snowy isles)

As much as we'd love a pinto Standardbred in the herd, this one didn't stand a chance with those stats. Oh well, this isn't my favorite tobiano spotting pattern anyway, though I do love the 2-tone mane and tail.

I will leave you with 3 random recent photos that Felicity found while perusing Mom's phone, sorted by increasing impressiveness.

a splat of bird poop that sort of looks like Squidward

a defective pop tart: nearly half crust!

an extraordinarily neon pink June sunset over Lake Michigan

Settling into Summer

Summer has arrived! It really has felt like it today too, thanks to a glorious early sunrise and abundant warmth and sunshine. It was a cool and wet spring here, so it's refreshing to have some more summer-like weather settling in. 

Now that we're well into June and haven't caught any horses with stats even close to +80, I finally conceded that Sandstorm and Mr. Devoted Disciple can stay permanently. M.D.D. has even been named. Meet Widget!

He was so named because one of the definitions of a widget is "a small mechanical device, as a knob or switch, especially one whose name is not known or cannot be recalled." (Thank you, Dictionary.com.) It seemed fitting for a sleek, solid black horse who was nameless for such a long time.

Here is Sandstorm modeling his tack: 

It's fun to have a curly-eared horse! We've gotten so used to calling him Sandstorm, the name we quickly picked out to replace the weird one he came with, that he may as well remain Sandstorm.

We named our new RHD mare "Kite" because she carries her tail high and because we really wanted to use one of the current rump arts for sale. Here she is!

I'm not sure this is the best color combo for her, though... Hmm, I'm sure she won't mind trying on other tack colors until we make up our minds.

And now, just for fun, here are some interesting things we've encountered during the last few weeks of spring on HI2.

PepsiSummer got stranded on Timbuktoo Isle again. This time it was Bethany and Promise who lucked out.

They found adventure gear!

Apparently geriatric travelers occasionally end up in Timbuktoo too.

Felicity and Cheeto fluted an overo APH on Brown Isle! This is the one APH spotting pattern that is still sadly lacking in our herd. Would this finally be the stunner who would complete our APH collection? 

Alas, he was not. Drat that negative intelligence stat! This would've been a much bigger blow to Felicity if she didn't have her beloved Focaccia to console her. 

She's a blue roan tovero. <3

The disappointing overo APH was not the only cool pinto we've recently caught on Brown Isle. Bethany and Krypton fluted one too, this time a tobiano Waler.

His personality is so fun that we may retire him to our Millennium Fields. We also think it's cool that his eel stripe is visible. =)

My last horse of note is this pale stallion that I, of all people, noticed was up for adoption.

How sad that somebody surrendered their first +6/6 horse, especially one as handsome as this guy!

I didn't tell my sisters - or Vega - about him for obvious reasons. He wasn't there when Bethany was livery stalking later, so I hope that means he found a home.

Vega, my +6/6 fluted Furioso <3

Spring Hodgepodge

Spring sure is flying by! June is already upon us, and Mother Nature has been ringing it in with multiple rounds of thunderstorms. 

I rung in the new month with some livery stalking! No, we have not been able to part with Sandstorm or Mr. Devoted Disciple. (M.D.D. really needs a real name, poor guy.) In anticipation of keeping one or both, I've been looking only at the mares in the livery. Aren't I so helpful? Check out this beauty I found this afternoon!

Whoa, +93! I sure didn't have to twist Lily's arm for approval to adopt her. =)

Flaxen chestnuts are so pretty! <3

She's the same height as Julie's Racking Horse mare, Xia.

Yoshi, my Racking Horse stallion, is an inch shorter than them both. XD

Now we have a tobiano RH, a sabino RH, and a solid-colored RH. What great variety!

That's the end of our HI2 news for the moment, but before we totally move on from May, let's backtrack again to Mom's birthday and take a look at her gifts.

As you can see, they included:

- a hairbrush. Talk about thrilling! XD

- audiobooks. They make long drives much more enjoyable.

- fun socks: 3 pairs with birds on them that came in an awesome sock box and a pair with horses on them

- horse and dog towels (because why have boring bath towels when you can have fun beach towels instead?)

- barnyard-themed puzzle

- Christopher Robin DVD (We all really like this one for obvious reasons.)

- 3 classic-sized Breyer horses and 2 riders. Mom loves all of these horse molds.

We dolls got new pants!

They fit us alright and are very comfortable. They vary a bit in length, though, and all of them are awkwardly short. Oh well, capris are great for this time of year. XD

Here we are each trying out a pair:

I will leave you with snapshots of what we were watching while we were sitting on that couch.

The show is Longmire, usually a pretty serious fictitious series about a Wyoming sheriff who investigates murder cases. (Felicity's choice, not mine, but there are often nice horses in it.) Closed captions were on so we don't miss any indistinct dialogue, and we just happened to pause it at these particular places.

Mmm, canned sandwich.

Ha ha, I feel this way about all coffee.

That's it for now! Happy June, everybody!

April Showers Bring...

Happy birthday, Mom! Saturday birthdays are the best!

Here are some photos we snuck off her phone that illustrate why May in Michigan is such an awesome month. 

First, some shots from the yard:

the weeping cherry tree in full floral glory

creeping myrtle

wild violets

New growth on the evergreens. Baby needles are so soft!

velvety baby sassafras leaves emerge already in their 3 distinct shapes

their tiny flowers aren't nearly as impressive as the weeping cherry's, but they still have them!

And now for a few forest photos from last weekend. Here is the group - minus Mom, obviously.

They were looking for morel mushrooms, which I'm told are pretty good when fried in butter. No luck with the morels, though they did find a cluster of what her uncle referred to as "beef steak" mushrooms (also apparently tasty), so it wasn't a totally fruitless venture.

They also encountered some interesting plant life:

unknown plant that looks like a cross between a calla lily and a pitcher plant

moss growing tons of sporophytes (the brown stalky things)

pleasantly round mossy mound

moss growing in a glass bottle

little white flowers

Not an egg, don't worry.
They found this mushroom cap (not a morel) that had been picked and turned upside down.
I didn't know they looked like this inside!

A colony of mayapple plants. They remind me of little umbrellas. =)