Arabian Tails & Breakfast Cereal

A few posts back, I shared some photos of my trip to Tennessee. We were there to attend a wedding. Adding to the delight of this event, we stayed in a restored cabin, and visited with several beloved cousins, one of whom raises and pampers Arabians in her spare time.

My trip to Pulaski would not be complete without a stop along Sorgham Hollow Road to say hello to my cousin Melody and her horses. This is the landscape of my childhood summers now made even more beautiful by the antics of this frolicking family swishing their tails, prancing, and playing to the camera!

These decided to keep busy searching for sweet grasses...

while this sweetheart came to say hello.

Then everyone wanted to be at the same place at once!

"This is my good side...take the picture, ok?"

As is often the case, today I set out to do a bit of reading on this ancient breed and stumbled onto a fascinating connection between the Arabian horse and Kellogg cereal! In the early 1920's W. K. Kellogg established a horse farm in Pamona, California as a retreat for himself and his family from Michigan and as a place to raise Arabian horses. He would go on to make it a gift to the state of California and to establish a library at Cal Poly in Pamona devoted to the Arabian horse. Click here to explore this story. I highly recommend the 1995 Founder's Day Highlights video and the 1932 audio featuring Will Rogers as master of ceremonies for the presentation of this historic property to the state!

If you just want to read up on the breed click here! For the WikiPedia scoop, click here!

To visit the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library click here!

And by the way, Melody told me she may be planning to sell some of these darlings!
Now that is just about as commercial as I will ever get in the blogosphere!
Speaking of commercial, which Kellogg cereal is/was your favorite?
I am a Kellogg Rice Krispies kind of kid! Snap, Crackle, Pop....
with strawberries & blueberries & cold, cold, milk in the summer time!

Have You Seen This Plate? OR .......................The Dog We Left Behind

This darling dog was the resident canine companion of Clock Creek Cabin where we stayed during the weekend of May 22 for cousin Rebecca's wedding. He adorned the wall of the bathroom, and we so wanted to take him home with us. The owner of Lairdland Farms and this charming, restored log cabin says he is not ready to part with the pup. Alas, I will just have to book another stay to see those beautiful, begging eyes again. Meanwhile, I am looking for this plate. There was no information on the back, other than the fact that is was designed with a notch so as to hang it on the wall. I will say that it seemed to be somewhat old.

Of course, there were many other wonderful features at the cabin.

Just out of sight is a much needed step stool to climb into this comfy bed.

Gorgeous old pine floors and period furniture made for an authentic restoration of the cabin. I enjoyed reading historic books all about the town of Pulaski in Giles County, Tennessee, where I spent many of my childhood summers. On a nearby 600 acre farm, I passed many a day cavorting with beloved cousins Larry, Gary, and Melody. We swam in ponds like the one near this cabin, rode tractors, got lost in cornfields, looked for crayfish and swam some more in Buchanan Creek, and climbed high up into the hills and pastures where we all had to take turns being Davy Crockett on a given day!

The upstairs loft featured these twins bed across from another queen sized bed, making plenty of room for our son and his family to join us.

The cabin was set near a meadow and a cold water spring.
Just plain peaceful. (Click on any photo to enlarge.)


If you look across the meadow, you can just see the top of the spring fed pond. In the early evening this was the stage for a most spectacular lightning bug display. Well, that is what we call them in the Deep South, but I also love "fireflies." One look at the glowing dancers over the tops of these grasses, and the existence of the fairy folk seems a certainty.

A place for meditation be you a mortal or a spirit...

A view from the hillside...

The side porch where we sat and watched the lightning bug ball.

Goodbye, Clock Creek. We will be back again, Mr. Blackburn.