There's no place like my 2nd home (Part 2).

My new friends...

One of the things I've been longing to do since moving to Kentucky is visit a horse farm so that I can photograph the horses! I was able to see that dream realized a couple of weeks ago when Click-ish Photographers (the local photo group I belong to) visited Bachelors Barter Farm in Harrodsburg, KY, home of April's Andalusians. Here's a sampling of what I was able to capture...

Jadira DD

Jadira & her half-sister Indira

Katie gets a good shot of the sisters kissing each other.

Tia was a sweetie!

Abby saying hello to Dia & Nobleza

My husband & daughter meet Tia.

Well, hello there!

Katie's son was a natural. 

Getting a bit of a shave... how embarrassing for this girl! :)

This is their stallion Campero. He wasn't allowed to come out and say hi, but we enjoyed him from a distance.

The Click-ish girls getting up-close shots of the new blooming daffodils. The grounds were absolutely beautiful!

Campero strutting his stuff near the barn.

Inside the house... was built in the late 1700's, by a friend of Daniel Boone's!

The huge fireplace in the original kitchen, which was in the basement.

My studly husband enjoying the pasture view.

I love all these beautiful old stone walls that are littered throughout Kentucky's horse country.

Katie's son felt a little adventurous, and wandered into the pasture. Thankfully, the owners were quick at jumping fences. :)

Thank you to all who made this fun day possible!!

The Tigress

I wrote about our visit to the zoo the other day. It was so much fun. We met so many fun animals! The beautiful tigers were so close that we would have been their dinner, if the glass wasn't there. This female tiger decided to pose for me. She evidently knew exactly how pretty she was!

Gorgeous! My "secret" childhood dream has always been to have my very own tiger. You think the zoo would consider . . . oh never mind.

Orangutan

We love going to the zoo as a family. It's so nice to get outside, walk around, and have close encounters with exotic animals. My daughter LOVES it! She still talks about our last visit to the Louisville Zoo, which was several weeks ago.

This particular zoo is now one of our favorites. While it's not huge, they are doing an excellent job at revamping the habitats, and creating great experiences for visitors. For example, I had a fun encounter with this female orangutan. She was so fun to watch. She started out a little ways away from me, sitting against the fence. She looked like she was deep in thought. I watched.

And then it was like she had a melancholy thought, and began to contemplate it.

And then, she saw me. I believe we may have even made eye contact. So, she came over to say hello, and stuck her face right up against the glass.

And then, she began to think deep thoughts again.

And I could almost hear her start to sing, "What would I give, if I could live out of this ca-age? What would I pay to spend a day, up in a tree? Betcha in the jungle, they understand . . . that they don't cage a wild animal. Wish I could be . . . part of that wooorrrld."

Cock-a-doodle-doo!

My daughter's favorite animal use to be a rooster. She did the cutest little crow, whenever she saw one. Of course her favorite animal changes almost daily, now. I think it might be a buffalo, now.

This pretty rooster just strutted around showing off at the apple orchard we visited recently. While his "friends" came over to the fence to greet us, he remained aloof. I decided to snap his portrait anyway.

My friend the goat

As you can see, I made a new friend when we recently visited the apple orchard. This goat was extremely friendly. He kept wanting to give me a kiss . . . or eat my camera. I can't tell. Anyway, he was an eager little guy.

Christmas Tree Hunting 2006

I know we're a long way from Christmas, but I couldn't help but think about it today. Whenever we go Christmas tree hunting, we try to really make it a fun day. We listen to only Christmas music, drink hot cocoa, and bundle up nice and warm. There is a tree farm nearby that really capitalizes on atmosphere, so we like going there. They have great big Percherons that drive sleighs throughout the farm—complete with sleigh bells. It's just perfect! When you come back from picking out your tree, you can step into their barn and sip on warm hot cocoa and eat cookies. We have such a fun time! It really starts to feel like Christmas once we've been there.

Grizzlies at the Zoo

Part of the reason I like photography is because it's fun. I'm not always worried about getting the perfect, best-quality shot. I wouldn't normally pick the local zoo as the place to find the perfect shot, either. I go there to have fun and to enjoy seeing the animals. Sometimes I take my camera just to see what I can capture.

On this particular day, the Grizzlies were very fun to watch. It was like watching a comedy, they were doing so many cute and fun things. Their habitat is less than desirable, but our local zoo has limited resources, and they work with what they've got. Despite the grim surroundings, these bears were taking swims and relaxing. It was fun to watch.

Fun in the pool

It's almost like he's waving to me.

This was a humorous sequence of events . . . the male was using the female as a lounge chair. He just leaned himself back and you can almost hear him saying, "Could you pass the remote?"

Sometimes, you just gotta stretch! At one point, he had book legs stretched up like this, at the same time. The female just doesn't seem to care.