A laughing horse and four beautiful horses on a stormy night!

Our six neighbor's horses were reduced to four.  It may be because two of them got our of the neighbor's fence recently and had to go back to where they came from. Who knows! When I saw the four horses close to our fence, my plans were to get this image I envisioned of four beautiful horses lined up behind the fence, but that's not what I got!  Because the weather forecast was stormy, the clouds were awesome!  It was windy and the sun was setting quickly.  I grabbed some horse treats and quickly went to work!  I have included my favorites from this horse photo session in hopes that you will enjoy them also!

Ace and his donkey pals

Ace is starting to get used to me photographing him closeup.  He used to be leery of my camera.  I used the Canon 85mm f1.2L lens wide open for the closeup up images taken at sunset which produced a pretty blue sky background.  The remaining images were taken in the morning before the sun became harsh.  The morning sun made the colors vibrant as the hint of autumn shows in the pasture.  Emmy Lou appears bigger than her Maw and Paw in the image below but she's not.  It was tempting to use Photoshop to slim up Ozark who appears so fat!  Our cute and spoiled pet images are included here for your viewing pleasure....

We sold our steers...

We sold our six angus steers at the sale barn and didn't make any profit on the sale this year.  This group of steers didn't gain a lot of weight compared to the steers we had the last few years.  Go figure!   I miss watching them graze the pasture.  The images below were taken a few days before we said our last farewell.

Sunflowers and other beautiful country wildflowers

Sunflowers symbolize adoration, loyalty and longevity. Much of the meaning of sunflowers stems from its namesake, the sun itself. I felt blessed to have the below sunflowers growing nearby in our yard this year.  The fifth sunflower image below is a photo of a sunflower before it bloomed.  It looks quite unique!  Comments about the other wildflowers are included above the images below.  Enjoy!

This white wildflower that comes up every year is called snow-on-the-mountain.

These lavender spiked wildflowers are called Dotted Gayfeather.  They look pretty when in a field with yellow wildflowers.

These tiny lavender wildflowers grew plentiful in our pasture recently.  They are purple false foxglove wildflowers. These would have been a beautiful backdrop for an outside girl's portrait!

Rose of Sharon show me how to grow in beauty in God's sight...

After I discovered that the name of these flowers were Rose of Sharon, I immediately thought about one of my favorite songs entitled "Daystar," which mentions the Rose of Sharon in its lyrics.  I have included three images of this beautiful rose along with the song's lyrics for you to enjoy! God bless!

Daystar

Lily of the Valley, let your sweet aroma fill my life
Rose of Sharon show me how to grow in beauty in God's sight
Fairest of ten thousand make me a reflection of your light
Daystar shine down on me let your love shine through me in the night

Lead me Lord, I'll follow, anywhere you open up the door
Let your word speak to me, show me what I've never seen before
Lord I want to be your witness, you can take what's wrong and make it right
Daystar shine down one me, let your love shine through me in the night

Lord I've seen a world that's dying wounded by the master of deceit
Groping in the darkness, haunted by the years of past defeat
But when I see you standing near me shining with compassion in your eyes
I pray Jesus shine down on me let your love shine through me in the night

Lead me Lord, I'll follow anywhere you open up the door
Let your word speak to me, show me what I've never seen before
Lord I want to be your witness, you can take what's wrong and make it right
Daystar shine down one me, let your love shine through me in the night