Children riding a horse to school, Glass House Mountains

Children riding a horse to school, Glass House Mountains, originally uploaded by State Library of Queensland, Australia.

And, yes, another photo from the Queensland archives. I love the matching hats and school bags! What a patient horse!

Vel and Dorris Phillips pose with their goat sulky

Vel and Dorris Phillips pose with their goat sulky, originally uploaded by State Library of Queensland, Australia.

Another great photo from the archives! I love the hand-painted backdrop!! Dad and I really need to get to work putting our goat cart back together! Then, of course, there's the small matter of teaching the boys what to do once hitched to the front... or, rather, what NOT to do. I can just see the pair of them bolting off, heading straight for a thick patch of blackberries! I'll try to make sure someone is on hand with a camera...

Four boys riding goats, ca. 1918

Four boys riding goats, ca. 1918, originally uploaded by State Library of Queensland, Australia.

Oh, wow - our boys (Nosmo and King) are almost big enough for me to hop aboard! And, bonus, our goats have horns to hang onto! This great photo is from the State Library of Queensland's archives.

Warmest Spot in the House

Not long ago my brother (who lives in Hawaii) sent me a photo of his dog snoozing on the cool tiles behind the toilet. The caption was, "Coolest Spot in the House." Around here, Pippi is like a heat-seeking missile when it comes to the lit fire. At the first sound of snap crackling twigs, she makes a beeline for the hearth and there she stays until forcibly removed. As the fire gets hotter or fades, she shifts closer and moves back, keeping herself in some kind of blissed out Goldilocks zone.

I attribute this heat appreciation trait to her whippet ancestry. Whippets have virtually no body fat, thin skin, and hair so short they are virtually bald. When you meet a shivery whippet, it's not because the dog is nervous, it's because it's hypothermic - even in summer. Pippi's other half (standard poodle) has at least blessed her with a bit of hair. This thin, scraggledy coat, though very cute in a disheveled-I'm-an-orphan kind of way, doesn't seem to offer the full insulating qualities of her poodle relatives.

Hence, the Keeper of the Hearth has arrived at Dark Creek Farm.

Note the ankle...

Okay, bad planning, I know - deathly silence for weeks and then two posts within minutes. BUT, I was flipping through the photos of the garlic festival when I stumbled across this one. It's actually a small corner of a much larger image, but what's interesting is a) digital cameras are getting pretty darned good - I was able to pull out this corner and blow it up so you could see interesting point b) the tattoo of the garlic on this woman's ankle (I hadn't even noticed it when I was snapping the photo, which is of a colourful vegetable stand...). People take their garlic seriously up in the Slocan Valley!

(The size of that zucchini is pretty impressive, too!)

Garlic Again!

Wow - what happened? First it was summer - then a zillion things happened (including a trip to the world famous Garlic Festival in New Denver, BC) - and now it's time to plant garlic again! Fortunately, while in New Denver I stocked up on several varieties of garlic. Then, seeing my enthusiasm for the pungent jewels, Diane (of Winlaw, BC fame) added more garlic bulbs from her garden to the already considerable stack I was trying to fit into my luggage (along with a rosemary plant). It's probably a good thing there are no sniffer dogs at the Castlegar airport - a whiff of my bags could have permanently damaged tender canine nasal tissues!

With the turning of leaves I feel I should be turning over a new leaf myself in the regular blogging department. I will be better in the weeks to come - really!