A walk around the farm

We have a horse farm behind our house. We didn't know it was there until after we had moved in and had our windows open on one of those indian summer days and heard a distinct neigh coming from the backyard. Well, I'm very familiar with this sound thanks to all of the countless farm animal-themed children's books that we've own or checked out at the library that make sure we readers know which animals go with oink, moo, neigh, etc. So, when I heard it I said, "Horse!" and Virginia said, "Good, Mama!"
Well, the nice family who owns the property rents out squares of land to horse owners and has given us permission to go on walks over there as long as we leave the animals alone. That's a deal, I say! I wouldn't know what to do with a horse, anyway. Love them, but a tad scared of their power. It's a Christopher Reeve thing, I guess, plus the fact that I work with spinal cord injury patients, too makes me prefer to admire them from afar.

This path, here, is right behind our house on the other side of a small creek:

Here's an old ceder tree. These horses stay directly behind our backyard and in the winter when the trees are bare I catch glimpses of them walking around. These birds were everywhere that day! So pretty! Anyone know what they are?

Pretty Ruby! It was freezing cold(for coastal NC) this day.

Pretty Virginia. Pretty observant, too!