Cold and horses

Back in the fall, I bought a groupon for a horseback ride with apple cider upstate. It seemed like a lovely fall activity at the time. But then most outings are lovely in the fall and many of those got in the way. In the end, we weren't able to schedule it until this past Saturday. There was no apple cider to speak of which I think is fair in February, but we did enjoy a nice ride. The only downside was that it was 19 degrees outside, which is a temperature that really no amount of hot cider can help.

Nevertheless, it was a nice day. I'm reminded every time I leave the city, how much nicer things are when they're clean and spaced out. Which I guess is a sign I shouldn't be living in a city at all, but I do enjoy the convenience of 24-hour fruit and vegetable markets. The road out to the farm was lined by rocky cliffs with beautiful ice falls on them. The only downside of small town New York is that there are apparently no coffee shops open on a Saturday morning. We followed the iphone to the one that was listed in downtown Walden only to find on arrival that the space was for rent. The only thing open for us to have for breakfast (or rather for Sam to have for breakfast, because I had gotten up early and eaten at home) was a gas station convenience store which gave us the bounty of last year's girl scout cookies and trail mix.

The farm didn't have too many long trails, but we took the horses (mine was Jupiter) over an icy trail to a field. We saw many deer in the forest, most of them alive, and then one that was dead and torn apart by coyotes. The law of tooth and fang is alive and well both in the city and without. By the time we got back, I couldn't really feel my feet, but overall it was still a lot of fun! And here are some photos of the occasion (having an iphone on hand again does have its advantages):

In addition to horses, this particular farm also had llamas, goats, pigs, two very large, but friendly mastiffs, and these little guys. Cows are so cute when they're small.

Not great posture on my part, but I do enjoy the iphone's many filters, so I'm posting it anyway.
 

Jupiter in all his glory. Apparently, none of the horses like him, but he gets on well with the llamas. 

Another gratuitous calf picture. 

As you can probably tell, this was not on the farm, but rather back in the city in Times Square.  We were in the area for lunch on Sunday, and I'm not sure if it was because it was early on Superbowl Sunday or because it was 20 degrees, but it was remarkably empty, so we stopped long enough to savor that. 

 Hope everyone had a nice and relaxing weekend as well! The Superbowl commercials were a bit of a let down, perhaps, but overall it was a nice one.