The Long & Winding Moo

Introduction to Me & My Portfolio

Cead Mile Failte!

A Hundred Thousand Welcomes! (Irish)

In 2023, my very beloved husband, mott passed away after bravely battling cancer. Hospice provided me the best grief counselor I could have ever asked for and she helped me tremendously. She came to my house and listened to all my sadness.

I am just a soul who likes to read, write and draw. I watch YouTube and Netflix a lot these days.

I cherish this site, the friends I've made here, the people who created it, The StoryMaster & The StoryMistress .

I cherish them ALL and am very grateful.

My user name is 4Provinces, named after this pub that no longer exists in Washington, DC. (It closed November 5, 2011 and is now some sort of ghastly fitness center): 3412 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington DC is the address where 4Ps used to be.

My handle changes now and then.

This is me as tHiNg:



Sometimes, in addition to being tHiNg, I am the suave Hooves of Fire, a Writing Bull.

I have loved cows my whole life. My Grandpa and Grandma had a farm in Iowa where I went to visit during my childhood every summer. I would talk to Grandpa's cows and shuck corn for them. They came to the fence and mooed at me and let me pet them. I was a sickly child who was bullied so my cow friends meant the world to me.

This is me as HOOVES of Fire, or HOOvsie as my late brilliant friend Yemassee used to call me.

Yes, I have been silly sometimes.



This is me as COWser Soze:



I am a judge in Sophyween 's

FORUM

The Writer's Cramp  (13+) Write the best poem or story in 24 hours or less and win 10K GPS! #333655 by Sophyween

and I enjoy doing that very much. I enjoy coming up with prompts to try and inspire others to write.

In that vein, mostly I am a reader these days.

Regarding writing. Sometimes, it's just about writing something you are happy with and feeling like someone out there really read it or connected with it. Wow, does that feel good when it happens, like hitting a home run.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Awards.

The honor truly lies in being nominated for anything and everything as there are all sorts of awards here and award-givers.

Thank you to all my friends (known and unknown) who have ever singled me out for recognition of any kind.

It is very much appreciated by me and has lifted me up at just the right times.




~~~~~~

AWARDICONS!

The site introduced Awardicons on January 13, 2002. On January 16, 2002, I started my ongoing activity, one of the first of its kind on the site:

STATIC

One Writer's Favorites!  (E) Awarding Others ~ More Than 23 Years ~ My Favorite tHiNGs! #327931 by ♥OctOGre tHiNg♥

To date, I have given out more than 700 Awardicons



MERIT BADGES!!

Merit badges were released on June 5, 2003.

To date I have given out more than 3,500 merit badges

Earning a nice badge now and then is all to the good. I merit badges and have commissioned 18 of them. The StoryMistress provides the brilliant creative genius to my suggestions..

Here they are:





It is a lot of fun to help design and earn badges and awardicons. You can earn them on the site in a variety of ways, as many as you can imagine. Sometimes I just stare at the badges and admire them. I see them as a beautiful collection.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SPECIAL EVENTS

I always look forward to September, the site birthday festivities, and enjoying Booo-rooke 's

FOLDER

The Wdc Birthday Masquerade Party  (ASR) Everything pertaining to all the Birthday Masquerade Parties #1947104 by Booo-rooke

This is an activity that is open to EVERYONE!! I have found it to be an encouraging and inspiring interactive writing exercise. And it's fun and funny, too! Try it. You might love it!





My Hammy friend, tHiNg couldn't resist posing here in the signature I made:




SOUNDTRACKING!

Out of that inclusive gem of Booo-rooke 's Masquerade, grew my beloved Soundtrackers, with Ms. Beth at the helm, followed by Batman who is now in charge. At least, one good tHiNg led me to another, as is usually the case here.

One of the last things I did with my husband was play Youtube music for him. I learned to do that here, as a soundtracker.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Recent Musical Writing Inspiration

Lately, I have loved being a part of -

FORUM

The Beatles Musical Extravaganza  (13+) A month-long writing challenge, using The Beatles' songs as inspiration. #2337962 by Nutty Puppy Mummy Mwah-ha-ha

That happened in June of 2025. I do hope that this will be an annual thing every June.

I have loved writing about The Beatles and listening to the music of my youth, thanks to Ms. Purple Sunday!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back to the start -

At the beginning, I started writing fan fiction in 2000 and had great gobs of fun doing that. Eventually I branched out.

I tied for the win in one of the earliest writing assignment contests here.




Once upon a time, I wrote a complete original novel stored in this nice folder

FOLDER

Sara's Port  (18+) My Original Full Length Romance Novel - Written 2003, Edited Summer of 2025 #269117 by ♥OctOGre tHiNg♥

I finished it more than twenty-two years ago. It was on private for a while, I finished editing and making changes in print size recently. It is now open again for other authors and above.

I also have written a variety of short stories in various genres and I try poetry now and then.

Over the years, I have completed more than 900 Product Reviews on this site - here are some samples of my product reviews. Doing them has helped me keep track of things I've read and seen as the old internal memory stick fades at times now.

Hadley   (Rated: 18+)

ASIN: 0899197353
ID #111911

Product Type: Book
Reviewer: ♥OctOGre tHiNg♥
Review Rated: 18+

Setting:
Story Plot:
Length of :
Usefulness:
Overall Quality:

Amazon's Price: $ 20.35

View Review · Buy Now!

Hitler, Chamberlain and Appeasement (Cambridge Perspectives in History)   (Rated: 13+)

ASIN: 0521000483
ID #112711

Product Type: Book
Reviewer: ♥OctOGre tHiNg♥
Review Rated: 13+

Setting:
Length of :
Usefulness:
Overall Quality:

Amazon's Price: $ 26.91

View Review · Buy Now!

I also have hosted several group campfires, including

CAMPFIRE

A Poem A Week Campfire I  (18+) Extinguished After 4 Great Years and 121 entries of Writing Poetry! #722499 by ♥OctOGre tHiNg♥

&

CAMPFIRE

The First Wal*Mart on Mars  (18+) Wacky Cow pioneers light a campfire all the way to Mars, Still Funny After Many Years! #807368 by ♥OctOGre tHiNg♥

& in 2017 I had...

CAMPFIRE

Rhinestone Cowboys & Vietnam   (13+) Vietnam Era Memories Revisited in 2017 - Before Cell Phones & Internet, There Was Life! #2130711 by ♥OctOGre tHiNg♥

I am now happily participating daily in my good friend, Morticia Wednesday Megan Rose 's wonderful campfire!

~~~


This is my freshened policy on reviews. "Avoiding Toothless Rabid Bullies & Such"  I reward people who send me nice reviews, but most of my reviewing is now limited to whatever catches my attention on any given day.

All I ask of you in general, is that you treat others the way you yourself would want to be treated and I will try my best to do the same for you.

I now try my best to forgive all who have or will fall short and wish them well. Honestly, I am not perfect, far from it. I wish I had held my thoughts in better at times instead of speaking or writing harshly before I thought about it.

Over time, I have learned that I am often wrong.

Writing, reading and reviewing can be therapeutic in times of grief and loss that we all face as part of life.

I do so appreciate anyone who is kind.

Our canine family member, a basset hound called "Boo," also helped me a lot when it came to putting all things into perspective. And her spirit continues to help me, as does my faith in God.



This is the look below that our teen-aged puppy dog gave me when I tried to get her to do something (like look at the camera) that she didn't want to do.





Or maybe she just ate a tasty bug.

So there.

Maybe, after all it isn't and wasn't all about ME.

It was about HER.

We were so fortunate to have her with us, happy and healthy for more than fourteen wonderful years and three months.

I hope that I have helped some here, there and somewhere in some small way with their own journeys,

Learn to embrace experiences of all sorts and write about them!

FOLDER

Ireland  (18+) 5 trips to the Republic of Ireland #2078426 by ♥OctOGre tHiNg♥

Traveling to Ireland with mott , photographing it and writing about it literally and emotionally saved my life in 2004, 2005 and 2006. Before that, we went there in 1990 and 1993. If you are fortunate, writing about your adventures will lead you to your own light as well.

I wish you all the best and God's speed.

Hooves is a pretty simple concept, after all.

Whether you "get" Hooves or tHiNg is up to you.

The bottom line of my advice is to be nice here and elsewhere or go read a book until you feel like being nice.

Unwise and knee-jerk actions can have far-reaching and long lasting consequences one did not anticipate.

It is okay to agree to disagree. Not everyone has to look at life or activities on this web site the same way.

Open your



and mind...



Ta Ta & MOOOOOOOOO