The One that Almost Wasn't

Tonight, as I sat eating some particularly uninspiring 'cooked from frozen' tortellini, I had to remind myself that any day that starts out with someone else cooking breakfast can't really be all that bad, overall.

Before you let your imaginations get away with you, I'll explain! This morning after feeding and turning out horses (or some of them, thanks to intermittent rain), I hopped in the truck and battled infamous Toronto morning traffic to head into the Queen's Plate breakfast at Woodbine. The food at Woodbine (that would more accurately be, the non-concession stand food!) is always incredible, and this was definitely no exception. The occasion at hand was the post position draw for the big race. When I was there I was reminded that the last time I was at a draw, it was in a little place called Dubai, for the World Cup!

There ended up being thirteen entries for the Plate - the horse I painted on Sunday, Costalivin, was not entered. Today I painted the morning line favourite, and the other filly in the field, Milwaukee Appeal, winner of the Canadian Oaks. This is 5 x 7 oil on panel.

And now...the rest of the story. It was noon by the time I left Woodbine, and I followed through on my plan to take care of a less-than-favourite task, finding something to wear on Sunday. Wonder of wonders, first store I went into, first dress I tried on...I bought! I should get a prize for that, I'm sure. From there I took care of a couple of other errands, then headed home. There was a message from the vet asking to switch tomorrow morning's appointment for Jubie to this afternoon, so I confirmed that was okay before going to the barn and starting to play catch-up!

Turns out it was probably good to check Jubie today - I'd planned to take her up and leave her for a few days so that they had some time to work with her before breeding her, and after talking to the breeding manager, I agreed to take her out in the morning. That put the pressure on the timing of the rest of my day. There was a point I seriously didn't think I was going to manage to finish a painting today. I did stalls, brought in and fed...and finally got back in the house around 7:30pm. Made something to eat (that disapointing meal I mentioned earlier) and I guess it was after 9pm that I actually started painting. Got a bit of a drawing down before dashing off to go fill up the truck and hitch up the trailer, then came back to finish the painting. All told, painting, truck and trailer took two hours. Not bad. I thought I might be in bed by midnight, except for needing to do this blog thing and clean my brushes...oh well!

On that note...time to go. Brushes...back to the barn...then maybe I'll make it to bed!