Mousehold in Spring

On a freezing cold day as I type this (snow and frost on the ground), it's lovely to remind myself that it WILL get warmer by looking at these photos of a fabulous April day last year.

I remember it actually being really warm and me having to take my coat off - oh, for those days again soon!  It clearly wasn't full blown spring though as there's not much leaf coverage on the trees.

Finn of course is always warm from all his charging around and he does love a swim at Mousehold Heath in all weathers, but this day was particularly warm so no doubt he loved his swim even more.

Racehorse

After a very emotional day last March saying goodbye to Mary, we decided to reconvene on the Saturday to go and say hello to one of Jim's horses and also to have a lunch together when we were feeling a little less wrung out.  Little did I know that we'd come home that weekend, owning a bit of a race horse!  Although even if I had known, I'd have gone ahead with it anyway!

We all met early ish on the Saturday morning - although I seem to recall there being a few sore heads! - and watched the horses out on the gallops before heading up to the Attwater yard.  I can honestly say I was a bit scared - the horses are so big!

It was at the yard that we met with Sally and David, who subsequently also become co owners of the horse we were viewing.  To be honest, it was all a bit surreal!

So this is our horse - at the time he was nameless but he's since become known as Mr Fox and he's been a bit of a monkey so far, although our trainer tells us that things are looking up!

Such a handsome boy!

I don't think these are our colours - I think they might be Jim's?

These photos have been sent to us since by the yard - I do love these action shots. We really need to go and see Mr Fox in action - I think the idea was to get involved with all the social stuff but I think he's been running at some evening meets and as we're all spread out in Epsom, Bristol and Norwich, things are proving tricky to meet!

Other People's Gardens - December 2018

I was very pleasantly surprised to see that the gardening work didn't dry up completely for the winter and I still had jobs to do, mainly chopping things back and tidying up.

As you can see from this photo, you can do a LOT of chopping back in the winter - this area of the compost bin had been empty before I arrived this day!   It's always really satisfying to tidy up the garden and get it ready for the spring and to see the new shoots coming through - although, at the same time, hoping and praying that the frost doesn't get to them.

(As I type this, I've got a few gardening jobs to see me through the next month, but feel that this might be the year I need to do some pushing for more work.)

Odds and Sods - December 2018

December passed by in a flash, probably because we were all so busy as usual.   I was really organised with my Christmas presents again - no IOUs this year! - so really enjoyed the run up to Christmas.  I even set up spreadsheets to show posting dates, when I was visiting people, the last date before Christmas that I was going to see people, etc.   It went very smoothly and I'm definitely employing this method every year now.

Now I've dropped my days at work, I now have two week days for jollies and jaunts - woohoo!   I rang Nicholas as he works strange shifts to see if he was free the day that Mum and Dad wanted to go to Wells next the Sea and he was - so he was roped in too!  

Finn and I have done plenty of walking and he's had a clean bill of health declared by the vet, which is great news.   Most of our walks were done in grey and damp conditions which is a shame, but you can't have everything.

Andy came up for a weekend just before Christmas and we had a lovely evening out with Mum and Dad in their local.

Andy and I had half a Christmas before the 25th, and the other half in the new year when he came back from Warrington.  I do like these elongated festivities.   As usual, I bought Andy his wine crate and filled it full of goodies, and he bought me another troll bead for my bracelet.

Christmas Day was fun, the usual mix of bickering, laughing, dancing and singing.  But mainly laughing.   Lovely memories made.

I've stolen this photo from Shannon - this was when we had our little jaunt around the city at the end of November.  I love it!

Every year I like to get a new Christmas decoration for the tree, generally while we're on holiday as we go away so late in the year.  But this year's decoration was actually a souvenir from the Bobbin Mill in the Lake District which I've embellished with some glittery rope.  I had meant to put some Christmas ribbon around it but didn't get my act together.  And actually I quite like it bare.

In the colder evenings and miserable grey days, I've been doing lots of knitting.  And I mean LOTS!  I've finished another jumper for myself - post to follow - and made lots of accessories, neck warmers, hats, etc.  It's been fab and I've really enjoyed it.

So that's it for 2018 - which flew past way too quickly.   I'm hopeful for 2019, and my word for the year is "moderation" - I'm looking forward to many more adventures, but am not setting myself too many goals or too high expectations.  

Cheers!