When it’s foggy and windy at Windermere, it’s cold. When it’s sunny and hot one day and foggy and windy the next, it’s Windermere. The ranch weather has more moods than a stallion with a new lady friend. That’s what makes it exciting though. I get to learn climatic acceptance. Right now as I’m typing away, the late afternoon sun has reappeared and sending shafts of warmth through the Western window. And just as I manage to compile a second thought on top of the first, the shafts are gone again. The rocky hillside across the canyon is now in complete shadow, but the far ridge to the South is still bathed in sunshine. It’s good to take a sunshine bath on Saturday night, whether you need it or not. Don’t you think? It’ll be twilight for a good hour or so and then just as it gets hard dark, the moon will slide up above the Eastern mountains and flood the ranch with a luminescent glow. The rocks will reappear as if they’re having a late tottie while discussing old times and the fate of mankind as we know it.

John Morton and Leigh Taylor Young came to the ranch today accompanied by Valerie Bishop and her husband Russ. While they were here, the fog gave way to sunshine and the wind didn’t give way to anything. They visited the new mare Autumn and her new ‘friend’ Uri, the ever present stallion on the property. They visited with Romeo and Moonstar. Moonstar was purchased by the ranch and is about three months old. He suffered a severe infection and needed to have his left eye removed to prevent the infection from spreading. He gets around fine though, which is a good thing because he shares the ‘round’ corral with Romeo, another young stallion about four months old. Romeo is big, beautiful and brown. The two of them eat, play and take naps while lying in the dirt together. Have you ever tried that? If you have, there is another corral available.

We all went down to the barn for a Val and Star visit. Pretty much mandatory on any ranch visit. And why not? Hugging Star is far better than sitting on Santa Claus’s lap. I’m picturing Star in a mall with a line of people waiting to give the magical white mare with the amazing blue eyes a hug. It would be glorious. Anyway, Val loved on everyone, including kisses for Leigh and mild tolerance for the rest of us.

Then we went down to the lower property to visit the legendary Casper the white llama and his charge of 49 goats. He started with about thirty so I’m thinking he may want to renegotiate his contract. The goats were typically curious and non-plussed with our presence but Casper strolled right into the middle of us. He particularly hung out with Leigh. He wanted to talk to her about her Dodge Charger with a Hemi but we had to explain to him that she’d won an Emmy, not a hemi. He didn’t seem disappointed at all though. George and Lynn and Russ and Valerie and John and Leigh and Ivy and I all stood around and talked about spiritual stuff for a few minutes and then John said they were going and just like that he and Leigh were in his car and headed up the road. That road on the lower property is rough, but we didn’t physically see them anymore, so they must have made it out okay. I must say with John’s quiet wisdom and Leigh’s unabashed enthusiasm, joy and radiance, the ranch, for me, was in full celebration. The Traveler was on the land. God Bless us all.