Harry Potter with the NC Symphony

Last night we attended a showing of the first Harry Potter film with the score directed and played by the North Carolina Symphony in perfect sync with the movie.

It was a lot of fun! The music was wonderful but it was also quite amazing to see this with a crowd encouraged by the conductor to cheer and make noise as we encountered our favorite characters. It helped that I got tickets early and we had a box to ourselves. I loved the audience experience without being crammed in the middle of a row. It was so good we got tickets for the next one during intermission.

As the credits rolled the symphony played the final score with huge fanfare and it was an absolute treat to hear. 

The place we'd hoped to eat before the show was totally booked with an hour and a half wait so we got snacks at the concert hall and had a very late dinner at another restaurant. Good but I'm not used to such late nights these days!

Lazy Saturday morning on November Hill

We're all having a lazy morning but I think Pixie takes the best picture today!

November Hill farm journal, 37

The perimeter line to our left is clear! That's the one side we won't be updating fencing on as there is an old existing fence that is just on the other side of our line. I still have some hope to purchase a piece of that property and I'd prefer to wait to see if that can happen before we spend money to fence it in. However, having the line clear of brush is making it so much easier to see what parts of the fence we can repair to make it dog proof.

We're starting to see some leaf fall happen, and although the temps have climbed back into the 80s the feeling of fall is here to stay. I've been wondering what's driving my intense, furiously-paced obsession with projects right now. I do not exaggerate when I say that I have cooked up around 15 new ideas in the past week. Pinterest is fueling this frenzy.

I think the many years of starting back to school in September is also contributing. I'm not taking any classes, have no textbooks to peruse, but I am as busy as a bee planning things to do.

As usual, the remedy for the frenzy is to walk the path to the barn and let the horses settle me down. Today I spent some time grooming and feeling the winter coats coming in. The pony is off to the thickest start at this point. I was considering trimming manes into the annual sport cuts but there are still a few horseflies out there so I'm leaving the manes long for another few weeks.

I'm seeing the squirrels rustling around, the deer are getting active, and the bunnies are out as usual. It won't be long before I'm raking up acorns to toss into the 11-acre wood.

I'm not sure if I mentioned that when I ordered the delivery box for the front gate area I also ordered a bench that opens up for storage, thinking I would put it in the tack room. I ended up putting it in the barn aisle and got matching bins that fit inside - the grooming tools are now sorted into hard brushes and curries, medium, soft, mane and tail, and hoof. I have another bin for tack cleaning supplies. They're all out of the dust and it's pretty nice opening up the bench seat and seeing how tidy everything is. Keil of course had to check to see if there were any treats being stored there.

The bench also makes it easy to sit and just relax with the horses and donkeys. I have chairs outside the barn door and do often sit in them, and off and on have had one chair in the barn aisle, but this bench is right in the middle of the wall and I love having it there.

Another sign of fall is me starting to think about riding after the summer off. When I think about riding, I start feeling the motion of the horse beneath me, feel the saddle, the stretch up and over when mounting, and the sensation of the reins in my hands. I find myself giving "air" leg aids when I think of cantering and the past two weeks I've been putting on riding pants even though I knew it was not quite time to start.

Something to look forward to, along with chilly nights, gorgeous color as the trees change, furry horses, the end of biting insects for awhile, and much less mucking of stalls as the boys stay outside during the days and the nights. Sweaters! Vests! The end of 3-shower days. I'm ready to say goodbye to summer 2017 and move on to autumn.

Adventures in DC, thanks to Amtrak and AirBnB

After returning from Ithaca in August, my daughter and I took a 4-day trip to DC before her fall semester classes started. It was a wonderful trip!

We decided to try Amtrak instead of driving or flying, and booked business class seats. The train left mid-morning from NC and arrived just after 5 p.m. at Union Station in DC. The business class car was quiet, adjacent to the dining car, and the seats were roomy with curtains and foot rests. The Amtrak staff were wonderful. I only had two issues: the WiFi was slow and the bathroom smelled strongly of the chemical used for flushing the toilet. It was super clean but that smell was intense. Still, the novelty of taking the train and getting time to read and work while traveling without the fuss of the airport was worth it.

At Union Station there were many red taxis waiting as well as Uber and Lyft rides, and I had opted not to rent a car while in DC. It cost about $12. to get to our destination from Union Station.

After researching hotels for days when planning the trip, we decided to go for AirBnB instead. I found a beautiful entire home for rent within walking distance to the National Zoo, which was our main destination, and the owner was gracious and helpful when I booked the place for our stay.

It was gorgeous.

The home was in northwest DC, a beautiful two-block walk to the zoo, and a two-block walk in the other direction to a fabulous little market where we were able to buy everything we needed to eat in while we were there. The house had a gourmet kitchen and was a treat in itself. Absolutely lovely space that felt like home. (If home has no cats, Corgis, or humans tromping in and out from the barn!)

Every room was beautiful but I dearly loved this kitchen:

We had no problem getting Lyft rides when we needed them. We ended up doing two days at the National Zoo and one day of Natural History Museum. And ended that day with dinner with a good friend.

Unlike the NC zoo, which is a huge hunk of land out in the middle of nowhere, with one entrance, the DC zoo is in the middle of a big city and has many entrances on all sides. We enjoyed the exhibits for the most part, though I felt the apes needed more space and felt they were depressed. I was blown away by what they call the "O-line," which is an actual tower and wires that the orangutans can use to travel from one habitat to another, right over the heads of the zoo visitors. We didn't get to see them do this, but even the idea was exciting.

I think my favorite sight was the tiger cooling himself in his moat.

The Natural History Museum was fun, especially since we took the entire day and just meandered around. We ate at Rosa Mexicano after, which was close by and very fun. The pomegranate margaritas were wonderful!

We will absolutely recreate this trip again, via Amtrak, at the same beautiful AirBnB home, with more visits to the National Zoo and some different museums and restaurants next time. It was terrific getting to spend some fun time with my daughter before she got busy with classes.

Mailbox bliss

Soon after we moved to November Hill we bought an oversized mailbox to accommodate my online shopping habits. I would rather order just about anything than go to the mall or drive around shopping for something I need. The big mailbox makes a big difference to the rural postal service carriers who otherwise have to hang packages on the mailboxes or leave them at the door.

With the new gate, though, and new fencing soon to be done, our big mailbox, now 13 years old, really looks shabby. The post is wiggly and it's not quite straight and it was time to get something new.

I went online and started searching. I had some ideas, couldn't find exactly what I wanted, but finally found something that came close enough and was priced well enough that I snapped it right up.

It is amazing! And a little bay Hanoverian is on the way to stand in that little shelter.