Winter Wilds

Greeting from Mom's warm, cozy bedroom. It is still definitely winter out there, but at least we're almost through with February, which for me is tied with January as my least favorite month of the year. Felicity thinks January's worse because it's darker and 3 (sometimes 2) days longer. She has a fair point, but I feel like winter is still sort of new and exciting in January - early January, anyway. By February you're just weary of it all and ready for spring, but spring is still a ways off. This particular February has been better than most, though, since we had the winter Olympics to watch. 

We've not gone near much snow on HI3 lately. (It's a nice change of pace to see scenery that is not white, even if it is virtual.) Our latest noteworthy wilds are therefore not huge, snowy mountain dwellers, though we do definitely want one of those in the herd someday!

Noteworthy wild #1 is from a biome we have not frequented very often, sandstone.

Aw, I love his shading and that tiny star!

Wow, buddy, what long legs you have!

At least they translate into some decent speed! His personality is quite nice too.

I think he sort of looks like a Thoroughbred crossed with a light carriage horse? Very unique, at any rate.

Noteworthy wild #2 is from the rainforest near our ranch, like so many are. =^)

Not the best post-lasso screenshot - our apologies.

I am not sure how he qualifies as a Grade Warm-blooded Horse, but ok, HI3. We got pretty excited for this one, because his genetic stat total was over 1000, which does not happen often (to us, anyway.) Also because he has cool sabino markings and cute splayed ears.

Everything was looking great until... nooooo! Orneriness strikes again. 

Of course, on our little joyride here he was on his best behavior and didn't buck once. We didn't keep him, though - we knew better. Daddy Long Legs could breathe a sigh of relief.

Our third and final noteworthy wild is from a volcanic biome. It was 2/22/22. We were so busy all day long that we ended up having to sacrifice a little sleep in order to log onto HI3, but we figured it would be a waste not to catch a single wild on such a cool date.

Fortunately, we didn't have to ride too far from where we were (Fairy Tail Village) to come across a wild. (Thanks, horsie sense.) Lo and behold, it was actually a pretty nice one!

Her genetic stat total is rather sad, but despite that she jumps and turns well, and she's no slowpoke either.

Too bad she's skittish!

We love duns, we don't have any solid red duns in the herd yet, and her lasso date is as fun as it gets, so it's going to be pretty hard to part with her. What do you say, Lily? It only seems right to keep 2 horses in 2/22...

Bog Beauties

 ...And it's February! It looks and feels like it outside, though we were spared from the worst of the latest winter storm.

We've officially welcomed "Scooby Dooby Doo" - now shortened to just Scooby - into our herd. <3

He has been our mount today as we've delivered mail and lassoed any clunky taiga wilds we come across. =)

Last night we rode "Mystic Dream," the fancy wonderland wild from December who has been renamed Slushy. 

One of those taiga wilds had an above-average genetic stat total:

I don't know that I'd go so far as "gorgeous," ha ha, but her coloring is lovely. That's certainly some unique conformation, though! XD

Cute, definitely, but she's no Teatime. She moved on to the trader with the other taiga wilds.

Some of those other taiga wilds have been pretty cool too! Here are my 3 favorites:

Isn't her mane beautiful?

Not exactly a "LilPony" (15.2 hands, over 1600 lbs) but really cute!

Wow, now this coloring deserves a "gorgeous!"

Bummer that none of these guys had high stats or a great personality to get us to overlook their slowness!

That's it for recent HI3 news. Alas, real life has been too busy for much time on the game. One bright spot, however, was this package that recently arrived for Mom:

It would not exactly take a rocket scientist to figure out what's inside...

To Mom's dismay, some of the little Audubon plush songbirds that have been on her wishlist for a while are no longer available on Amazon, so Mom has been doing some online searching for the remaining ones. No luck with the downy woodpecker yet, but success with the eastern bluebird! As you can see, this seller was pretty awesome: it takes a special person to bother to decorate the box with bluebird stickers. =) 

We waited until today to open it, and we're probably not going to be able to get rid of the box. Maybe we can think of some other use for it, since it is a good doll-sized box.

The moment of truth! (And aww, there were even stickers inside! <3)

I soo want to see a real eastern bluebird sometime! They live in Michigan - all of the songbirds in our collection so far are ones that include our state in their range - but most of what we see around here are robins, sparrows, and mourning doves, with the occasional cardinal, chickadee, or blue jay. We (well, I anyway) get really excited when we see something different, like a pileated woodpecker or northern flicker. 

Here we are with Mom's 3 newest birds... and the cardinal who is not new but seemed appropriate to be in a February photo. Lily's with the northern mockingbird Mom got for Christmas, and the bird on my lap is the house finch, one Mom bought herself in January because the price was low.

I think it's time to cut off those goofy loops, guys. We don't plan to hang them from their heads. Right now they are all nestled in a box together. One or two get to come out every Monday to hang out in Mom's home office for the week and add a little joy to the proceedings. (End of the workday on Friday = bird call of celebration. Mom's weird like that. XD)