ABOUT THE AUTHOR

About this Photo:

This photo was taken by the very, and I mean very, talented Stan Godlewski, who I am lucky enough to know, and who happens to live nearby. We are fellow bourbon aficionados and we sometimes gather at a good friend's house around a firepit. Bourbon goes so well with firepits.

The picture was taken on a rainy, cold day in February, near dusk. The barn wall I am leaning against is in Northford, Connecticut and I drove by it several times before I found it, which means Google Maps is fallible. The farm is called “All the King’s Horses” and the owners rescue horses. And though I’m smiling in this picture, the stories of these abandoned and abused horses the owner saved was enough to make me cry.

I began thinking about writing down my Iceland experiences in the summer of 2012. I was sick that year and could not make my annual trip to Iceland. I was extremely disappointed and pined for the place. Out of that longing, I started writing down some of the more amusing travel tales about our group in Iceland, our adventures and misadventures. I decided I would start a blog as a way of sharing these stories with friends.

After a while, I opened it up to the public and people from all over the world responded. They related to the major themes of the blog: the beauty of Iceland, the horses, and traveling with friends. But many women also expressed how they used to ride when they were young girls and they remembered the sense of freedom it gave them. These conversations were from women all over the world, and it struck me that the language and love of horses, and the remembered freedom, was universal.

“Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.”

~ Mary Oliver