angryfilly - angryfilly

Just a fun fact brought to us by our friends at Kerrits Equestrian Apparel -

Former President Ronald Reagan joined the Cavalry, where he learned to ride. He landed many acting jobs in Westerns because of his riding ability.

There's just something about a man on a horse ;)

This is indeed a weird winter.  The science says that the jet stream has never, for as many years as humans have been keeping records of weather (since 1865 or '68?) stayed as far to the north for as long. I do wonder what this portends for the rest of the weather cycle this year.  Biblical amounts of insects, terrible storms, drought... I try not to think of it and just enjoy our warm days and nights in NW FL.  But alot has passed these last couple of seasons even without borrowing trouble in the days ahead. I have seen the holidays come and go, passed the birthdays of numerous friends, acquaintances and even my hubby's w/a comment on fb and am now coming upon the mushiest, commercialized day of the year when everyone everywhere wants some acknowledgement of being loved. So here's your quota of mushy for the entire holiday.

What is love but an directed effort to do for someone else because you feel all warm and fuzzy inside when you think of them.  Or that crazy fear that without that person you will stop breathing. A little extreme to be sure, but to some that's how intense their emotions of love are. Empathy will also drive a fondness for another 2-legged.  Whatever your defining stand, I haven't shown the love to y'all since I've had to devote myself to other endeavors. I haven't made the time to update this website very much since last fall. I do apologise, if only for the misguided perception that someone, somewhere out there peruses this webpage looking for new content and has been disappointed. I know, the 'death of a blogster' and all that :)

But you my readers are deserving of more. More crazy thoughts from the angryfilly. More interesting images of 4-leggeds and whatever takes my fancy to shoot. More devotion to keep this website up with an ever-changing reason for you to keep coming back, besides looking for your images.  In this I am neglectful, although the hits keep coming every month, even since I've been out of the woods, arena or off the farms.

I hope that you will have a Happy Valentine's Day and I pray that there's comfort in the air for those of us that do not.  And I hope to spend more time on all of my duties including angryfilly in the months to come.  I love attempting to capture just the right image, the kind that speaks to others, highlighting the amazing Gift we were given in having animals in our lives! I too am disappointed when that has to take a lower-priority spot on the lists of my life, but these animals,many of their people and spending time as angryfilly all mean very much to me. There. Thought this better than trying to find each and every one of you a card that said it all.  Happy Valentine's y'all!

photo credit Debbie Furry

For all who have worn the uniform honorably, we owe you a debt of gratitude that can never truly be repaid.  Thank you for your sacrifice and dedication to protecting our Constitution and our soils.  Best wishes for a wonderful Veteran's Day to you all!

This jack-o-lantern reminds us all on this Halloween 2011 to keep the light of Liberty and Faith burning brightly in our homes and hearts all year.  Image courtesy of Carolina Tack.

The drier, cooler breezes make one sigh deeply after the miserable days of summer here on the north side of the beach.  Funny how there's always a breeze on the beach, yet the peninsula just north from the Gulf has an abundance of motionless, still days in the heat of summer.  But now, all those months of very warm to lizard-happy hot have given way to the cooler mornings and comfortable northern kisses of welcomed air.  These will be cold, wet bone-chilling knives of wind in a few months but for now, the relief is reflected in smiles on many faces down here.

Pumpkins, haybales and scarecrows fill our views and the local grocery store is offering the sweet treats for your annual ghosts and goblins. Winter B-ball sign up has boys and girls excited for the new season to start and football games on the big screen are only outweighed by being in the stands with the sun and a fall breeze.  Breezes, they tell secrets to those who listen. They whisper in your ear about state fairs and candy apples and please! don't forget the cotton candy.  They lure the grateful keepers of equines to the outdoors with the pleasures of a relaxing trail ride after a long, hot summer's worth of mucking, feeding, watering and summer's attendant duties.  They caress your soul with the comforting thoughts of a warm stew or soup, made from scratch. And they make you yearn for a warm fire in your snug home, pleasurable as well as financially smart if you plan appropriately.

Autumn on the Gulf Coast is a pleasant time between the tourists in the summer and the snowbirds in the winter. This time of year everything is fresh yet matured, exciting yet soothing in it's assurance that the sweltering heat of another summer has come and gone.

This fall feels different. As the 1st autumn without a ride for St. Jude's (Miss Charlotte's Ride) I am adrift in the breezes on the scrapyard as I dream of the woods in autumn. I am comforted with memories of a wonderful woman, a worthwhile cause and a community trying to enjoy the pleasures of autumn trail rides while helping others. Angry Filly was began on those fall breezes and this fall, 2011, marks the end of the events services of Angry Filly Photography. The need for my focus lies elsewhere and I can no longer commit to events as I once did. Unless really moved by petition, any angryfilly time and work will be personal and released in limited form. But I find that with the brisk autumn breeze comes complete acceptance of my life's path being our recycling facility at this time, a place where instead of honoring the Gift of the Equine I must give my all for the continuation of small business that still believes in American made.  I understand the impossibilities of that anymore in the country but must try my best to keep it alive.  This autumn I give my heart to every animal that ever gave me an image of something much bigger than the human's world, that connection to the peace of the world that I was blessed with as angryfilly, the event photg.  Nature's world.

While our world is in upheaval with many around the world wondering where the next meal is coming from or how to pay the bills, and small children have to be on the move with their transient parents so much that they can't go to school (K-K-K forbid the child go to a school his/her caretakers do not pay taxes in) and The People are standing up en masse but not without division, yet there is still hope this autumn. Hope for the continuation of our beautiful fall experiences and memories, that are gently draped around our hearts with the breeze blowing across our skin trumpeting our short change of season.

This fall, we have hope.  This fall, we make our decision on how to give these traditions to our children, ourselves and our countrymen.  This fall, enjoy each moment you can, live life like you were raised and help others when you can.  And make your voice heard, even if the voice is only the silence of standing in solidarity with the show of humans world-wide moving to silence the greed of the 1% and be allowed to make our own way in the world, controlling the elected officials that we pay to run our government. I remember a phrase that remarked on the fall of our discontent from somewhere but I choose to see it as our Autumn of hope and renewed dignity in ourselves and for others. A civilized society of capable and strong communities is as precious and as elusive as catching and keeping that light, crisp breeze that swirls the broad and thin leaves off of the few trees that turn colors on the coast.  Sourwoods and other decidious broadleaf trees (the oaks, maples, beeches, sweetgums, yellow-poplars, dogwoods, hickories), whatever species grows where you live in the United States of America, we on the Gulf Coast wish you a brilliant autumn show and a heartfelt show of support in our own 'Season of Change'.

I give Thanks for all that I have and have been given in the cloak of my experiences as Angry Filly. And now that the cat is out of the bag and no one asks me anymore why I am the "angry" filly, I will walk the path in my life that I feel must. It is the only way I know to go because each of us must choose; what we want or what we stand and work for.  If Thanks is something more than trying to live the way one believes right, it must be the sacrifice of  something you want to do in exchange for something you must do.  All the best to everyone who supported me in the past several years, may your decisions be simple and your heart be true and the warmth of homecoming always be in your lives.

Happy Trails Y'all.

Have you ever looked at an animal and wondered what it thought? What was going through it's brain as you gazed upon each other? 

There are those who tell me not to think of non-human life forms using their brain in the way we humans do.  I'm sure they are correct, but still... there's something going on behind the eyes of many species we call animals. The dolphin, probably from our early love of Flipper on television, can exemplify that feeling of communication for many of us. Especially after the studies that were done and the types of work these marine mammals went through at the hands of humans.  Tests, navy work, acting on cue - all different types of man's union with and desire to understand more about this beautiful creature. 

I know that this dolphin wasn't in the wild when I made the capture. I know that the environments it and I need to survive are extremely different. But this air breather moved me to question the emotional energy connection between species.  If humans were aquatic creatures, many of us would have dolphins as pets, I'm sure.  And if we had been, the Gulf Oil Gusher would never have happened.

Maybe the only connection, the one that speaks to you through the silence, is the same as you felt whenever you searched the eyes of a favorite dog or horse.  It may be the energy of love, the knowledge of responsibility to all creatures great and small.  We go about our days knowing that there are 2 kinds of people; those that appreciate animals and those that don't.  And in almost every dog, horse or dolphin there are those that will be just as curious about us. And those that have no interest in humans, at all.

Whatever the answer may be, I will always wonder... if there is a place on earth for me to be with and see animals, wouldn't and shouldn't there be a place after my body has passed from this world to gaze into their eyes wherever I end up? And maybe, just maybe, I will then have the understanding of what they see when they see me.

*pronounced ( lay-zay lay bon ton role-ay )

Nay is bumming on the yard today from missing Joe Cain Day yesterday. But there are still 2 days of celebration left. A bit of history concerning this holiday ... The colors of Mardi Gras were chosen in 1837: purple, which symbolizes justice; green, which symbolizes faith; and gold, which represents power. I love the colors of Mardi Gras!

Lundi Gras then Mardi Gras! Lundi Gras, also known as Fat Monday, the day before Fat Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday is also a day of festivities, fireworks and parties.  The longest Mardi Gras season for years is in the final throes of revelry, the parades, balls and partying are blowing out all imagination these next couple of days.  Fever pitch will grow, celebrations will get more frenzied, and all favorite sins will be explored, experienced and exploited now through Fat Tuesday. Because the following day, Ash Wednesday is observed to be the time you give up something you love for the 40 or so days before Easter. This self-denial during a period of intense religious devotion has been a long-standing tradition in both the Eastern and Western churches throughout history. I am saddened that I cannot be in Bienville Square in Mobile, Alabama tomorrow for the final blowout before Ash Wednesday. I do however, hope you have enjoyed a parade or two this season and if not there's still time for you to join in the celebrations!

Have fun and stay safe out there and remember; when Ash Wednesday rolls around we at AwcA will be right here to buy your aluminum cans and such that you consumed during Mardi Gras.  Some cash in your pocket always brightens your days of sacrifice for Lent!

"Let the good times roll shaa!"

As I close out the books on the first month of 2011, the winter weather over the beach/peninsula area is dark, cool-to-cold and wet. Depressing it is, yet we must remember how much better we have it in NW Florida than say, our neighbors to the far north.  Blizzards, ice storms, day after day of cloudy, overcast skies combined with at and below freezing temperatures for extended periods of time are unheard of in the deep south. From acquaintances that live and work in those conditions, I understand that there are 3 seasons - frozen, muddy & a might warm. Some hardy souls relish the days of beautiful sunshine sparkling on the snow, but it remains a high price of miserable weather to pay for a few brilliant days over the winter. To them, our week of rain, cold and clouds is just a walk in the park.

I can't say this weather is a walk in the park. I'm southern and unused to such a dreary outdoor environment. I am used to sunshine through the cold, warming to temperatures that have one stripping layers of clothing as the day progresses, only to begin putting some of those layers back on as the afternoon sunlight dims towards nightfall. But I listen to my friends and will accept their advice in giving Thanks for the mild (?) winters I share along the gulf coast with you.

Recently, when describing a big horse competition in Ocala several winters ago, one such northerner looked at my image and asked if others realized that the rider pictured was wearing only a lightweight t-shirt at sunrise in January. Surprised, I replied that many of the riders went out that morning in light layers and that that morning the temp in Ocala was 32 degrees before the sun came up.  I said that distance riding requires a great deal of muscle work and balance that really warms you up in the saddle.  His response was "It must be fine to go out in the dead of winter like that" with such a wistful tone I would have offered my own home to him for a snowbird vacation from his 7 foot snowdrifts at his old farm up north if he wasn't already in a nice condo on the beach. To complete the livestock chores in that weather would drop me like a wilted Christmas Cactus in July! That he did it for many years, humbled me.

So as this horrid winter continues to bring me ugly, depressing days after one or two days of sunshine, I will remember and count my blessings. And when I run across from one set of scales to the other in the pouring cold rain like I did this morning, I will remember my friend's envy of this young lady riding out for a day in the saddle in the coolness of a Florida winter, braving cold, fog or humid heat. Because the blessings of living and working in Florida do not end on when winter dumps as far south as us.

Here's to hoping y'all stay warm and dry!

Wishing everyone a happy & prosperous New Year!

The joy in a child's eyes as they behold a Christmas sight. A baby that doesn't know why everyone is excited that little one opened a present, but grins a toothless grin in happiness anyway. The grandmother that smiles in girlhood delight over daisies on her warm robe and slippers.  These are wonderful Christmas scenes that exemplify the spirit of Christmas to many people.  Christmas memories are a blessing we can carry with us throughout our lifetimes in our hearts and minds.  These are the memories that get us through thick and thin, so no matter how crazy the holidays may be in your circle, take the time to note those moments, hopefully, forever.

I am an environmentalist with a lower-case 'e'.  I spend my days trying to help my community keep our Gulf Coast paradise clean.  I wouldn't live anywhere else, but my world and yours will change drastically from the BP oil gusher. 


My prayers encompass all of the beauty and life, in and around the northern Gulf of Mexico.

I am not a flower type of girl.  I much prefer foliage of different shades to colorful flowers in mixed array.  I once wanted an orchid but didn't want to kill something so beautiful.  That and perennials that bloom are my only exceptions. Imagine wide swathes of same-colored tulips or fences covered in Confederate Star Jasmine, those I can live with.


The smell of jasmine in the late spring is so promising.