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Bah. ♥Jun. 27th, 2014 // 08:22 am♥ [Tags | going out, riding, riding:jonny, theatre ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/1021226.html ] As promised, I took the Baby out for a blast yesterday. I always seem to forget this, but I do now have a greater understanding of why Mike always ends up sitting wonky in the saddle.... I've Done Something to my back, presumably trying to force him to let me stay sitting squarely. Pilates this morning was a bit of a pain, literally. Still, he got a goo run out of it. Which reminds me: could someone coming over from the US to Worldcon bring me a big bottle of Advil Liquitabs, please? We went to the theatre last night to see Hay Fever. It was the same high-end am-dram people who did Wyrd Sisters, so I'm going to be kind and assume that it's one of Coward's weaker plays, but it still wasn't terribly good. In particular, I'm fairly sure that you're supposed to be able to tell the difference between the way that actress plays the woman who is an actress when she's being her normal, somewhat hysterical, self and the way that she plays her when she's being an actress acting out a hysterical woman. Nice Mexican dinner, though. Link Who loves you?

Here, have some pictures of plants ♥Jun. 25th, 2014 // 07:20 pm♥ [Tags | garden, house, pictures, riding ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/1021117.html ] Lately, I have been Far Too Busy with Worldcon stuff. And we painted all the bits of the outsides of the stables that don't require drastic sanding and re-rendering. This morning, we took the boys out for a hack, for the first time in ages. GB was a spooky little bugger, culminating in breaking into a canter on the road when I made him go past some cows. Sigh. Note to self: must take Baby out for a good long hack and blow some cobwebs off him. The hop is continuing to 'not show much growth in the first year', although it does keep trying to make a break for freedom and head up vertically, instead of going along the top of the window: Mike has to keep getting up there on the ladder and pushing it back into place. Odd, because I thought that that was how they grow them commercially: up a vertical and then along. Possibly it needs to be higher before it's happy with the concept of 'along', or possibly the wall is fooling it into thinking that there's something there for it to grow up. (The sunflower's doing pretty well, too.) Tomatillos are, it turns out, self fertile: we did have two, but I went to water them one day and found that something had apparently eaten through the base of the stem of one of them. The internet give conflicting advice, but there are at least three fruits on it, and lots more flowers still to come: Up in the woods, on the other hand, some of the Willow Herb is now taller than I am: Link Who loves you?

Bloody animal.... ♥Jun. 14th, 2014 // 07:37 pm♥ [Tags | riding, riding:jonny ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/1018220.html ] The horse flies have started.... I should have realised, when Ang's eyes went all manky. I've been very careful about putting his fly mask on every day, since. Yesterday, I made an attempt to put Baby's fly mask on. He broke the baling twine the first time, and half pulled the tie-up ring out of the wall the second time. Today, I used a different tie-up ring. When I went to spray him with fly spray and he broke the baling twine and buggered off into the field: wouldn't have been a problem except that I was going to ride him, so I had to go and get him. When Mike rides the Baby, he sometimes struggles to get him to trot. Today, I had the same problem in the other direction.... He did go a bit bronco a few times, but his buck is almost as ineffectual as GB's, so it took me a few times before I realised. On the other hand, I took advantage of his friskiness to run through the dressage test that I'm currently working on with GB. He didn't do too appallingly, but I wouldn't have liked to be marked for it! Link Who loves you?

♥Apr. 15th, 2014 // 04:28 pm♥ [Tags | pictures, riding, video, visitors ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/990930.html ] It's been another lovely day, although colder than the last few: we had a frost first thing this morning, and I was glad of a jumper during our riding lesson: "Sunny morning" (Watch on YouTube) We've been busy with K&M staying for the last few days, which was lovely but I'm tired now! There was much walking around the woods and admiring the bluebells, which are very fine. Here are some less fine bluebells, from when we went for a hack a few days ago: We went into Canterbury for dinner last night, as the pubs all seem to close on Monday evening. Much to Jodie's relief, the Belgian beer place allows dogs, so she just went to sleep on Mike's feet. Before we ate, we had a little wander around town. There's a very peculiar tree in the grounds of the cathedral: It has little fuzzy red flower balls on it, and what looked like the remains of last year's seeds were brown balls about an inch across. No idea what it is! Link Who loves you?

It didn't rain! ♥Jan. 2nd, 2014 // 06:43 pm♥ [Tags | riding, video ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/941919.html ] Well, not until about 5pm. I suppose that's an improvement (although the boys had to stay inside anyway, as it's like a swamp out there). I had a thoroughly unpleasant night, last night, feeling rather feverish and meh, but today I seem to be ok other than achiness. Both of which are good, really, as we had our fortnightly riding lesson this morning. Look at the pretty pattern I made: "Riding lesson" (Watch on YouTube) (Mike pointed out that I really should have decreased the time between images, so there's something for you to look forward to in a couple of weeks!) Seemed to go well, and Mike was getting the Baby moving along reasonably well. Next time, we're swapping. Lucky Mike, poor me.... Link Who loves you?

New year ♥Jan. 1st, 2014 // 05:36 pm♥ [Tags | pictures, riding, video, weather ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/941784.html ] Happy new year, everyone! We had an infestation of Cabal, so I've not really been online very much and have a stack of emails to catch up with.... I'm just pretending that I don't know about the laundry mountain until I've had a decent night's sleep. I'd quite like for it to stop raining now, if someone could sort that out for me? Each storm seems to be causing a new leak to appear. The other day, it was the dining room ceiling, very slightly, and this evening it's the door into the store rooms. There are new trees down every time we go in the woods, too: I think that I am going to have to give up posting photos, because most of the ones I've taken lately are just a greenish blur. I could post videos of what the horses have been up to, if you like? "A day in the life" (Watch on YouTube) Link 2 kisses // Who loves you?

And relax.... ♥Dec. 18th, 2013 // 06:51 pm♥ [Tags | jodie the dog, pictures, riding ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/938257.html ] Today was a lot calmer! I even managed to start it with a little lie-in (7:50! Woo hoo!), which meant I woke up just at the right time to see the pretty sunrise: We had our delayed riding lessons first thing. I think we're going to stick with this instructor. She's twice as expensive as the local competition, but then she's only here every two to tree weeks and she seems to be good. After lunch, we took the pooch for a tremendously exciting walk to a New Place, where she bounded lots and flushed several pheasants. It was, however, a rather steep and muddy walk, so I'm not sure we'll be doing it often at this time of year. Here's to a continuation of no animal, medical or structural emergencies.... Link Who loves you?

Portents, mysterious objects and divers alarums. ♥Dec. 14th, 2013 // 04:47 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, jodie the dog, pictures, riding ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/936247.html ] Yesterday morning, there was a very faint rainbow in the sky, just after dawn. Which was odd, as it was not remotely precipitating. I speculate that there was something going on with ice crystals in the very high cloud. I did take a picture, but I'm really not convinced that it's actually visible, as opposed to something that I can see because I know that it's there. This afternoon, we took the pooch out along a different route to the usual one, mostly so we could see if Mike could find my favourite whip (spoiler: he did. Yay for depth perception!). Along the way, we passed a field containing three more of the mysterious blue objects that I previously found in the woods. They were spread out in a line, that roughly pointed towards the one in the woods: When we passed the one in the woods later, I climbed up and checked. I could just see another one, back towards the field, through the trees. Very mysterious! Seriously, what *are* they? I was tempted to open one and see: Mike said I shouldn't, as it might be Science, but surely if it was Science then there would be a label saying so? But wait a moment, we had to go back to collect my whip? Well, yes.... This morning, I ummed and ahed about riding, mostly because Mike wanted to hack on his own and I couldn't decide whether it would be more annoying to have to listen to GB standing in the field complaining the entire time or to take him in the school / for a hack on his own and have him be a fidgety sod when he got back and the Baby wasn't there. In the end, I decided to take him for a little hack, so I collected the pooch and off we went, with her happily sniffing around and trotting along behind us. Until, that is, we got to the end of our road, at which point she came out onto the slightly larger road that ours meets and sat down in the middle of it. I eventually managed to coax her onto the bridle path over the road, and she started coming after us, but then she stopped again. This is not normal behaviour, so I was worried that something was wrong with her leg*. So I got off and fastened GB's reins around a convenient tree then when to check. Her leg was absolutely fine, so I gave her a pat and a bit of a telling off and went to get back onto GB. As soon as I unbuckled his reins, the little shite headed down the hill for home, and as the reins were undone I couldn't actually give him a yank on the bit. He pulled me down the steep, leaf-covered hill for a bit, then pulled me off my feet and dragged me a bit further flat on my back. I gave up and let him go when he fell over my legs, deciding it would probably be safer all around. (Later, when we went back, I took a picture: ) So, I had a quick look for my whip, failed to find it (bugger: favourite whip!) and then we followed him down the hill, and along the lane, and as he got close to the house the WWOTV came running out in a panic, closed her gate so he couldn't go any further, and came and got hold of him. (She was very impressed that he hadn't injured himself, or broken his reins, or done anything other than walk down the road at a moderate pace, stopping to free himself whenever he got tangled in a rein: it was mile or so, and he was only about 200 yards ahead of me by the end. I didn't bother to point out that, had she done nothing at all, he would have just walked into the stables and started eating grass!) So, pooch in house, in crate because a) muddy and b) our bed wasn't covered over and c) all her foot care stuff is on her favourite windowsill and d), damnit, *bad* dog putting all three of us at risk, then back out, new whip, back on horse, back to the woods, not a bad ride (but then he always goes well when he's in trouble!). I have a nasty feeling that I will be very sore tomorrow. * Leg update: we were back at the vet yesterday, when he had planned to finally take the stitches out. He didn't. It seems that the wound is healing, but it's doing so with the edges not quite lined up, and he's worried that the sticking out side will catch on something and rip it back open. She's still got two of the stitches at the edge in, and we're still on the keeping-it-covered-with-gamgee-and-bootie (when outside)/vetwrap (when in bed), now with added washing three times a day with hibiscrub as well. Link Who loves you?

The usual ♥Dec. 10th, 2013 // 05:55 pm♥ [Tags | jodie the dog, pictures, riding, weather ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/934489.html ] This morning, it was lovely and frosty-misty in the valley. I took this a bit later, when the frost had mostly gone and the sun was just appearing over the valley side: Unfortunately, it's hard to be sure how much is mist and how much is camera.... I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and get the Apple Store to replace the back with an official one. Anyone know how much it is? (Mike says $29 in the US but more here.) That was as we were on the way back from a little run in the woods. Mike only came with me as far as the end of the lane, as he's tired from being up in the night with work. Jodie came around the woods with me, in the end, when it became apparent that she was just going to sit in the road waiting for me if I didn't let her come with me. She was ok, though, and didn't manage to, eg, get her bootie off and rip her stitches open. Much to her confusion (and sad face), we broke with routine by going off in the car, without her, at the usual after-lunch walkies time. We were only gone for half an hour, though (buying a Christmas tree), and she got walkies just as soon as we got back, took a chainsaw to the bottom of the tree and stuck it in a bucket of water. Walkies involved chasing two squirrels up trees, and so were terribly exciting: Sadly, I was just too late to capture the shot a about five seconds before this, when she was jumping up at the tree, or the one about three seconds before, when she fell over backwards on the way back down.... I suspect it's going to be another misty-frosty night, tonight. It was lovely and warm when I was walking the pooch (GB only went out in his waterproof today, not one of his warm coats), but as soon as the sun hit the valley wall and we started bringing the boys back in it got very chilly, and the mist had already started to gather by the time they were tucked up in bed. Link Who loves you?

A small revelation.... ♥Nov. 3rd, 2013 // 03:39 pm♥ [Tags | jodie the dog, pictures, riding, weather ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/916878.html ] I was thinking, "I'm just going to upload the pictures from my phone today, and then edit the post to put the text in. The iPhone keyboard is too fiddly for writing long stuff," when I realised that if I was doing that then I could also make the initial post to DW, and solve my lack of cross-posting mehness! And resize them (which, I guess, means right-click to see the bigger version)! (Any DW only people: see LJ for the last few posts, I've been trying to find a simple was of getting pictures up here and, scarily, the LJ app seems to be the best method!) So, here we go! We took the boys out for a nice long hack this morning, past the Agricultural Equipment Of Doom (which turned out to be a grass roller. No, I've no idea why it was so frightening, either), which GB was a bit distressed by but -- after backing up a couple of dozen yards and being told not to be silly, he did go on past it. We had thought that the Baby would then just follow him, but he was firmly heading off in the opposite direction. Fortunately, Mike managed to get him turned around and caught up, so we could go for a ride in the woods. It's very pretty up there at the moment. It's also tricky to take non-blurred pictures from the back of a moving horse. After lunch, we took the dog to Kingswood, which had been recommended to me by a passing dog walker as being really nice and having deer in it. It was also busy, which we probably should have expected on a gloriously sunny Sunday afternoon. We decided to follow the sculpture trail, along which we saw a mushroom foraging guided walk, three small shelters that I suspect were built on a course of some kind, and absolutely no sculptures. Admittedly, we did skip the last bit of the walk, on account of how it absolutely poured down, but even so: bizarre. When the rain cleared, the sun came out again, which was nice: I was rather damp, on account of having not taken my hat with me on such a nice day when there was no rain forecast until the evening.... These are some of the flowers that randomly sprang up in the bit of grass we had re-seeded. They're remarkably cheery, considering it's November! Link 1 kiss // Who loves you?

Minor crises ♥Aug. 27th, 2013 // 11:14 am♥ [Tags | angelo, riding, shopping ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/906248.html ] We had two minor crises before breakfast, yesterday. First, Mike came back up to the bedroom after he'd fed the horses and said I might want to go and look at vgrumpybastard's nose. ( This is a little icky ) The other drama was that I had a phone call from Ikea, saying that they were outside. "No you aren't," I said. Turns out that they were outside our old flat. I've only previously had one order with Ikea, and it came here. Utterly boggled about how they even had that address, but they had a van doing SE London and Ashford today, so it should be here in a couple of hours. Link 5 kisses // Who loves you?

Rural Quietness! ♥Aug. 18th, 2013 // 08:05 pm♥ [Tags | house, pictures, riding, sewing ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/905328.html ] So, we figured out the cause of Psycho GB the other night: the Woman Who Owns The Valley had moved her two mares from the nearby-but-out-of-sight field to the field immediately behind our stables, and both GB and the Gelding Over the Road were both being nutters because of this. He was a bit of an arse the following morning, but seems to be settling down now. Drinkies with the neighbours went pretty well: they were here for a lot longer than I expected, the WWOTV is a very cheap date and the other neighbours made snarky comments about her when she wasn't in the room, which was quite amusing: it seems that they have the same 'you don't own the place, well, ok, only mostly' issues that we do, with added 'but we do rent our flat from you'. Here, have some photos: Our new dining table is pretty huge to start off with, and has two extra leaves to make it even huger. As far as I can tell, no one makes table cloths for expanding tables: I guess you're just supposed to have three different (and all hard to get hold of) ones. So I made my own. This is it in the non-expanded position, and it's got (imo) cunning folded up bits at the ends that mean that you can make the table cloth longer but still the same length of drop around the edge when you put the leaves in. I'm very slightly unhappy that you can see the raw edges if you look closely in the open corner, but I'm generally pleased with it as first attempt. The sewing machine's been getting a lot of use this last week, and there's more still to go: the inevitable slight gap where the bottom of one of last week's sets of curtains meets the windows sill is crying out for some sort of bolster affair to block the light properly, and we have a couple of bench seats for extra seating when the table's opened right out, and I got enough table cloth fabric to make cushions for them. The foam pads are sitting accusingly in the dining room, but I used pretty much all of a 100m reel of cotton on the cloth, so that will have to wait until I next get to Dunelm Mill (depressingly, the only conveniently visitable place for this sort of thing. God lord, they sell some hideous tat). We had another explore of the local woods today. There are woods on both sides of the valley, but one side looks to have much better riding than the other. Unfortunately, getting out of the valley either involves a long flat road or a short steep one, and the latter is sufficiently steep that it's only viable to ride up it. When you do get up to the top of the hill, you can turn off onto this thoroughly strange bit of bridleway, right through the middle of a field of beans. It's a little like being in the middle of the ocean. The road does, however, have remarkably little traffic. Grass is quite common in the middle of it, but I thought I'd stop and take a picture of the brave little flowers. Then I had to restrain GB, who assumed that they were there for his own delight.... Today, I also attempted cherry cordial, with some very-nearly-on-the-turn cherries bought at the roadside. I thought I'd just halve them and leave the stones in, as I'd heard that they add a nice almondy note, but unfortunately that was the only particular taste there was, although it is a lovely colour. I think that the next try will involve mashing up the fruit more thoroughly. This evening, the boys had carrot tops, courtesy of our first veg box delivery. Even Jonny, who his not known for his love of carrots, seemed impressed and scoffed them down along with a few extras that Mike has over-eagerly chopped for dinner before looking at the size of the roasting tray. Apparently, veg box carrots are tastier than 5kg-for-£1.50 carrots from Tesco: who'd have thought? I believe that there are currently only two remaining pieces of flat pack furniture to be assembled! Yesterday, I placed another Ikea order.... Link 5 kisses // Who loves you?

Ouch. ♥Aug. 16th, 2013 // 08:21 pm♥ [Tags | house, ow, riding, sewing, visitors ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/905204.html ] So, what have we been doing? We had our first visitors, coth and family, en route to a very early morning ferry to France. As part of the prep, I spent a day running up pairs of curtains so that they'd actually be able to get some sleep. (Today, I went and bought Even More fabric, to have a crack at a table cloth that will not only be big enough for our enormous table but will also extend with it. Watch this space.) We invited the neighbours 'round for a drinkie on Saturday evening: we had been thinking about a BBQ, but the forecast is a bit poor so drinkies it is instead. We got a delivery of Even More Flat Pack Furniture. Mike is complaining that his wrist hurts from all the screwing, which I'm sure isn't the way around that such things normally work for men. We also got most of the bedroom furniture, which meant that we could actually unpack clothes. I'm looking forward to wearing a different pair of trousers tomorrow. We took the boys out on a longer and much less road-filled hack in the woods on the other side of the valley this morning, which was nice. I jumped on the baby at one point, because he didn't do as he was told when Mike tried to get him to canter up the hill without (but towards) GB. He did as he was told for me, and Mike even managed to hold onto GB and stop him from following us up the hill.... Which, ouch, was more than I just managed. There's a somewhat nutty gelding in the field over the road, currently being turned out at night to stop the flies from bothering him. I just went to give the boys their first haynet and rather than go 'ooh, food' when I opened his door, GB decided to barge through his stall guard (a chain across the door, basically) and me to go and run around snorting and glaring at the gelding over the road. Sigh. I went and got a headcollar on him and coaxed him back to his stable, where I hit a snag: Mike hadn't got around to putting the top bolts on the stable doors, so they only have kickplates (at the bottom of the door) on them, which is why the stall guard was up. With the stall guard ripped from the wall, and me not having four-foot-long arms, I couldn't actually shut the door. So off he went again. Sigh. This time, I tied his haynet up *before* I went and dragged him back into his stable.... I'm not actually sure if it was tGOtR that was setting him off or something else: the Baby is very worked up as well, and when I was bringing GB back up to the stable he kept stopping to stare up the hill, in the opposite direction to tGOtR's field. It's possible that they were all smelling something worrying in the trees, I suppose. Either way, my leg hurts from being barged, thankyouverymuch. Link 9 kisses // Who loves you?

We are moved. ♥Aug. 11th, 2013 // 06:48 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, house, moving, riding, shopping ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/904826.html ] And we even have our internet connection, finally if rather slowly. We seem to be settling in ok, even if Mike can't find anything int he kitchen after I unpacked it, and it's starting to feel more like we actually live here and less like we're visiting someone who isn't actually around much. The horses arrived earlier in the week, and they seem to be settling in ok as well. GB in particular spent a couple of days being very clingy, and he keeps going to stand by the gate at about 4pm waiting to come in for his dinner and thus failing to realise that he's surrounded by all the food he can eat, but he's calmed down a bit now. I had a nasty moment on Friday, when his eye had swollen up and filled with icky stuff overnight, but he submitted as well as could be expected to having it rinsed out a few times and the swelling's pretty much gone now. I suspect a fly bite, but it could have been anything, really. They're now going out to the field decked out in full-on KKK outfits, which does seem to be working to keep the flies from being too annoying. (This morning, we went out for our first little hack. There was almost a Moment when we got to the end of the lane to find a farmer unloading some very vocally pissed off cows from a trailer into the field, but with a little coaxing they walked past calmly enough. I thought that that was a good sign, being the most scary thing we were likely to encounter by a long shot, so I wasn't really prepared when GB caught sight of another horse in a KKK outfit, being led along the road, and promptly did a 180 to try and get as far away from it as possible. I have no idea, as he's not bothered by Jonny in the same state.) The neighbours met thus far seem like nice people, although the woman who owns the valley seems occasionally to not remember that actually, she sold this house a decade ago and doesn't have a say any more. We've not yet met the people who live a bit further along, but have had it reported that they're a bit odd. (We did have the odd experience yesterday of watching from our kitchen as some of them cleared ragwort from one of the horses' fields. They were merrily trundling around with their wheelbarrow when suddenly their dog started running around madly, followed by his owner. Then the owner's husband took his shirt off and started running around, waving it in the air over his head, and they all dashed back to the house at great speed. We speculated that it was some sort of strange foreplay ritual, but when we saw them this morning it turned out that the dog had disturbed a wasp nest, and the husband had been badly stung where they'd got inside his clothes. Fortunately, he's not too much the worse for it! Something similar having happened to a chap at our old yard just before we moved, Mike is now a little paranoid about it happening to us, too.) We're in an annoying state of being as unpacked as it is possible to be, but on the other hand we have two big deliveries due for tomorrow, of bedroom furniture and stuff from Ikea, so that's a few more days of unpacking for me and flat-pack-assembly for Mike. I still haven't managed to get my job to let me quit, either, so I'd better catch up on that now that we're back online.... Link 8 kisses // Who loves you?

Hot! ♥Jul. 24th, 2013 // 07:47 pm♥ [Tags | going out, holiday, hotels, moving, pictures, riding, work ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/903939.html ] Weather: do not like. Had enough now. Actually had enough about a week ago. Really hope it stops soon, as we're, y'know, moving house next week. Eep. I have been terribly slack about posting. The previously mentioned has something to do with that, but other factors include: - having a slacker husband who's now only working a couple of days a week and so is Underfoot (it's fortunate that we're about to move into a new house with more rooms, really) - going up to Ripon and York for a few days, for a family thing and a break (nice, but how come York has no restaurants? It has masses of pubs-that-do-food, but even seemed under-supplied with chain Italian places. Lovely hotel, though, with a nice restaurant) - going to the Kent Country Show, where it was hot. We didn't actually buy anything, although we did collect several leaflets from sellers of potential house things - making pizza, with the gels from work, on a day out / social type thing. I keep trying to quit, on the perfectly reasonably grounds that tomorrow is the last day I can possibly go into the office, but I don't seem to have managed it yet. Must make more of en effort, tomorrow - going to two events that could reasonably well be called garden parties: one fannish, involving the talking of toot and the discussing of gossip, the other with the future near-ish-neighbours, involving lots of people asking 'and do you hunt?' (more, we suspect, as a way of making conversation with the random strangers, and a general test of views, than as an actual request that you go along) GB continues in his usual way, added to by the fact that he doesn't much like the heat. The Baby is being a bit of a naughty bugger lately, added to by the fact that I don't like the heat either and so haven't been riding him and making him behave. He had the farrier on Monday; we weren't there, but he was apparently a little shite and broke two tie-up strings. There may be walloping in his future. The house move is going reasonably well, we think. I've made contact with the horsey neighbour, which has in turn lead to arranging farrier, muck removal and hay; the delightfully named Igor The Builder is digging things up and laying concrete in the stableyard this week; I've spent an absolutely fortune on my credit card over the last few weeks (to the extent that I had to do a transfer mid-month to clear the balance for more spending), but bewilderingly (and pleasingly) haven't had any Security Phone Calls; and I do in fact have the spreadsheet of doom: you can't actually be surprised by this, though. It has been Entertaining arranging everything so that it gets delivered on Day Zero (which I will spend doing the last of the packing wile Mike sits in does various odd jobs around the new house). Last week, we did actually get a delivery here: 224 boxes. As of today, the pile has gone down rather, and the bathroom (not the one we actually use much) and spare room are looking like this: Did I mention that it's too bloody hot...? Link 6 kisses // Who loves you?

The Letter Of Last Resort ♥Jun. 5th, 2013 // 05:09 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, driving, house, radio, riding, riding: side saddle, riding:jonny, work ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/901795.html ] This is rather good (available for anther three days): The Letter of Last Resort is a hand-written letter from the Prime Minister to the commanding officer of each of Trident's submarines. It contains instruction on what action the commanding officer of the submarine should take in the event that Britain is obliterated by nuclear attack and all those in authority deceased. The letter can only say one of two things: retaliate, or, don't retaliate. Each new British prime minister must write the letter upon taking office. Set in the near future, David Greig's brilliant play is a conversation between the new prime minister (in this case a woman) and the Head of Arrangements, John, at the end of her first day. It unpacks the arguments around nuclear deterrents - and the surreal position a new prime minster must find themself in. Yesterday, I took GB out to the water meadows near the stable: I'd never been before, mostly because I didn't want to just go on my own but had never managed to get the timing right to go with someone else. The bad part was that I let myself get talked into trotting down the narrow road through the village: I try to avoid too much trot on the roads, because I don't want GB's legs to have trouble, and they were indeed swollen when we got back. Fortunately, they don't seem to be bothering him today, so Ill just keep an eye on it. The good part was that he had a lovely time charging around on the grass, and splashing in the river. He was very dubious about going in it, but I convinced him to try and, once he'd looked confused and had a big drink, he wandered around quite happily. I swear he was deliberately making as much of a splash as he could! I'll have to take him back, without the trotting down the road part. Maybe we'll take the baby as well. Life seems to be terribly hectic right now, which is at least partly because Mike was around during the day last week: we were down in the new house twice, for a start, and the horses had massages. Plus I had to go to work. That's just rude. Also, Mike broke the car, which not only meant that I had to go to a breakers yard and hang out with the strange men there on Monday but (as that hasn't fixed it) also means that I have to faff about pumping one of the tires up every time I go anywhere. Bah. Yesterday, I was being primped, and today I had two riding lessons (dashing back to the stables in between to swap both horses and saddles: this may have been foolish) and am out for dinner.... And then I have to go to work, *again*. (I'm bored with work, now. I've fixed it all, so it's just day-to-day stuff, and that's getting dull. Well, fixed it all other than my usual problem with companies I work for: this one is, ahem, showing all the signs.) Link 6 kisses // Who loves you?

The rest of the holiday ♥Apr. 16th, 2013 // 06:56 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, going out, holiday, house, moving, riding ] I had thought that God was at a disadvantage in not having a bar, but it turned out that they were more than happy to serve drinks in the library, complete with lovely squishy sofas. I think God won. (Oddly, though, God and the Commies use the same brand of toiletries. This probably says something deeply significant.) Yesterday, we headed back towards town and went to see the ponies in the morning. Afterwards, we went to the Museum of Kent Life, where we fed the lambs and didn't really get value for the tickets on account of having been there recently enough to make it not really worth going into the buildings as we remembered what was in them. We thought about going to the National Fruit Collection, but in the end just wandered around the shops ("Tiddly Pom" is a great name for a cider seller) and didn't pay to go in: may be worth doing so later in the year, when we can better see which kinds we might like to plant in The Garden. We did go for a wander in Canterbury Cathedral, though (God got us free passes), and then went out for a really fabulous dinner at Deesons, which I suspect we'll be going back to after we move. The food was lovely, and they produce lots of it on their smallholding, and the wine - Chapel Down Bacchus - was really rather fabulous; I'm not surprised that they served it at the Royal Wedding. I think I last had a bottle of Chapel Down about seven years ago, and the quality's really come on. This morning, we were back in Bexley, where Mike had a jumping lesson: I figured that we really should take advantage of having a HOYS-winning showjumper running the place and get Mike at least the basics before we move. He was on GB, who really is a spectacular horse for learning to jump on. I got on first, both to make sure he was actually moving properly (I should probably say "spectacular horse for learning to jump on provided you can make him move"...) and because he's done very little jumping since he's been in Bexley and, in particular, since he had that problem with his leg. I needn't have worried, as he was in an 'ooh, good, jumps!' mood: I just popped him over it twice and then said "Ok, carry on". For his first time, Mike did very well, and by the end of the hour he managed a very creditable stretch of canter with two times over the jump and no breaks. We're back home, now, but Mike's still off work for the rest of the week: we're off to try out Jonny in the school tomorrow (after my riding lesson), and we're off to The House for a meeting with a guy who'll look at the horse-related work that the house need on Friday: fingers crossed that it won't cost too much. My real fear is that the membrane on the sand school will need replacing, as it's had a bit of interest from the local rabbit population.... (GB really needs a hair cut: his mane's starting to go all floppy. Must do that, and get his feathers off, now it's warmed up.) This entry was originally posted at http://flick.dreamwidth.org/882701.html, where it has comment(s). Add comments here or there, if you feel like it. Link Who loves you?

The rest of the holiday ♥Apr. 16th, 2013 // 06:56 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, going out, holiday, house, moving, riding ] I had thought that God was at a disadvantage in not having a bar, but it turned out that they were more than happy to serve drinks in the library, complete with lovely squishy sofas. I think God won. (Oddly, though, God and the Commies use the same brand of toiletries. This probably says something deeply significant.) Yesterday, we headed back towards town and went to see the ponies in the morning. Afterwards, we went to the Museum of Kent Life, where we fed the lambs and didn't really get value for the tickets on account of having been there recently enough to make it not really worth going into the buildings as we remembered what was in them. We thought about going to the National Fruit Collection, but in the end just wandered around the shops ("Tiddly Pom" is a great name for a cider seller) and didn't pay to go in: may be worth doing so later in the year, when we can better see which kinds we might like to plant in The Garden. We did go for a wander in Canterbury Cathedral, though (God got us free passes), and then went out for a really fabulous dinner at Deesons, which I suspect we'll be going back to after we move. The food was lovely, and they produce lots of it on their smallholding, and the wine - Chapel Down Bacchus - was really rather fabulous; I'm not surprised that they served it at the Royal Wedding. I think I last had a bottle of Chapel Down about seven years ago, and the quality's really come on. This morning, we were back in Bexley, where Mike had a jumping lesson: I figured that we really should take advantage of having a HOYS-winning showjumper running the place and get Mike at least the basics before we move. He was on GB, who really is a spectacular horse for learning to jump on. I got on first, both to make sure he was actually moving properly (I should probably say "spectacular horse for learning to jump on provided you can make him move"...) and because he's done very little jumping since he's been in Bexley and, in particular, since he had that problem with his leg. I needn't have worried, as he was in an 'ooh, good, jumps!' mood: I just popped him over it twice and then said "Ok, carry on". For his first time, Mike did very well, and by the end of the hour he managed a very creditable stretch of canter with two times over the jump and no breaks. We're back home, now, but Mike's still off work for the rest of the week: we're off to try out Jonny in the school tomorrow (after my riding lesson), and we're off to The House for a meeting with a guy who'll look at the horse-related work that the house need on Friday: fingers crossed that it won't cost too much. My real fear is that the membrane on the sand school will need replacing, as it's had a bit of interest from the local rabbit population.... (GB really needs a hair cut: his mane's starting to go all floppy. Must do that, and get his feathers off, now it's warmed up.) Link Who loves you?

Bits and bobs ♥Apr. 9th, 2013 // 03:58 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, cons, culture, eastercon, health, holiday, riding, sewing, work ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/898132.html ] The thought occurred that a) my sewing machine's not been serviced in at least a decade and b) I will shortly not live a short drive from a sewing machine repair shop. So I thought I'd get it de-fluffed and oiled before we move. Just called the shop, mostly to check that I could park, and he said that it would be from £50 for one of that age (I don't know exactly how old it is, having stolen it from my mother, but it's a New Home, and New Home rebranded at Janome a decade ago). I foolishly then thought "I wonder if it's worth spending the money?" and have now been drooling over the features of modern sewing machines. There's one that's got a built-in mini-overlocker, and it's only £200!!! I always wanted an overlocker, they're fabulous... At least, I hope to only live a short drive from said shop for a little longer. The people we want to buy from did have a second viewing at the weekend, so fingers are firmly crossed. Today was frantic tidying for a viewing of our own, after I got back from the yard. The people we've had seem to be fairly equally split between those who do and do not want to knock down the wall between the kitchen and the living room; I can see both sides, but I do like being able to shut the door. While I was at the yard, I took GB out for a plod in the woods. As I left, the girl who runs the yard was just finishing up a lesson in the school. Only slightly more than half way around the woods, she overtook me, which was a touch embarrassing. On the other hand, after she walked alongside me down the hill she said "Is it ok if I go off?" and headed on at full-tilt. For about twenty yards, at which point her horse saw an unfamiliar log and went nuts: GB gave her horse a slightly bemused look and then kept plodding, at which point it realised it wasn't actually a tiger and followed him. We remain, however, a one-horse household. We thought we'd found a good one last week, but the vet comprehensively failed him yesterday ("There's no point charging you for a five-stage vetting.... It's £150 for a two-stage, but I barely got to stage two so call it £100"). Have now started phoning people like GB's chiropractor, and stopping to chat with people I know to say hello to on the lane, to see if they know of anything. (There's a slight deadline on this, as a) I don't want GB to be on his own at the new house and b) I want Mike to have lots of lessons with our current instructor as he's getting used to the new horse.) Next weekend, we're going to have a few days away from home, and maybe we'll try and find some horses to look at as well. Last weekend, we went to see This House, where we sat in the Opposition and got swooshed around the stage a lot. It was very good, although I fear I may have missed some of the references. I did, however, know who Finchley was when she got mentioned, so she'd already been on my mind. Eastercon seemed to go well, and we seem to have escaped the various con cruds, which was a relief. We were probably protected by the power of Mike's dongle. The auction went suspiciously well: would anyone like to own up to stuffing the Smash Tin with £20s, or will I have to live with having more money than my records suggest I should? I'm off to the GP tomorrow, to follow up on my blood pressure. I've bought a little machine since then, and have been taking it every week or so, so I have a nice little graph showing that it's consistently on the boundary between "normal" and "go to the doctor if you feel faint", so hopefully that will put this silliness to bed. Of course, then there's the other row to have, but one thing at a time. And at least I don't have to carefully not get annoyed now. Am torn between demanding a cholesterol test to prove my point and not wanting to risk it in case it's fractionally high and they spend the rest of my life trying to put me on bloody statins. Work continues, much to the surprise of Some People. Boss needs to make up her mind what she wants to do when I move, though, and continues to put it off as she is Too Busy And Doesn't Want To Think About It. I keep meaning to nag her, but she's frightfully stressed. Boris! Link 8 kisses // Who loves you?

Wow ♥Jan. 25th, 2013 // 01:18 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, riding, weather ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/891678.html ] I dreaded how long it was going to take to get the sand school back in action. Turns out I didn't need to: I arrived at the yard this morning to find it looking remarkably clear, and (when I wandered over to check) came across the bloke who keeps it in condition: "It was much better yesterday," he said, "but then it froze again overnight...." (He then wandered off, muttering darkly about five inches of snow tonight, but we shall see.) Colour me impressed. It was still rather too hard in the middle to do anything but walk on it, but around the edges it was soft enough for a controlled canter or two. GB was a little unhappy to be in there, mostly because there were So Many Scary Things and anyway he actually needs to go for a good run, but he was fairly settled through most of it (the cars on the lane, the flapping bit of netting, the tractor being fired up to tidy the muck heap, the squeaky wheelbarrow, the horse being lunged in the other pen who was obviously running away from something very scary...) until a pigeon rustled some leaves in the hedge. Perfectly reasonably, given the comparative size and attack power of horses and pigeons, GB reacted by spinning 180 degrees on the spot and flying into flat out gallop down the middle of the school. I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and called it a day, but I do think that a year ago I would have landed on the fence. Link Who loves you?

Good / bad / maybe ♥Dec. 21st, 2012 // 02:30 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, riding, riding: andrew, work ] GB seems to be a bit perkier than he was, which is nice. On Wednesday, I took GB to my lesson and he was pretty much his normal self. Today, I rode him in the school and he wasn't quite so up for it, but then he spent yesterday standing in his stable because of the rain, so he might just have been stiff. I finally got hold of the vet to discuss GB's worm test results: he prescribed a five-day worming programme, and then a third type of wormer in a fortnight. Poor GB's going to be thoroughly sick of the stuff, but hopefully it'll sort him out and get him back to normal. The down side is no going in the field when he's being wormed, so he's got a few days of staying in the stable to put up with. On the other hand, I bought him an enormous bale of haylage, so he can have a lump of that every day, which should help him put some weight back on as well. If he keeps perking up, I'll be able to get back on the side saddle, which will be nice. On Monday, I had a second lesson on a horse I rode the week before. He's called Andrew, and he's only a baby (five or six), but he seems generally very nice and (mostly) sensible. (Mostly: the lesson this week involved a lot of slow work, and so had the one he'd been on immediately before. He wanted a run. He really wanted a run. He asked nicely a few times, then a bit less nicely, and then decided that he was going to have a run whatever I thought, complete with throwing bucks in. Mike was behind us, and said it looked quite impressive....) Watch this space, but we shall see, we shall see.... We had a big Ocado order due in on Wednesday evening. The chap looked very apologetic as he came up the stairs, and explained that a bottle of wine had broken in one of our crates, and The Rules said that he couldn't let us have anything out of it. Fortunately, it was mostly either non-urgent stuff or things I could get from Lidl on the way home from the yard, but Mike will have to brave a shop to get the wine. I'm Working From Home over the next few weeks, owing to office move chaos. It's been quite pleasant this week, particularly as I've ditched Sage (huzzah!), although there is an enormous stack of files behind the sofa.... This entry was originally posted at http://flick.dreamwidth.org/872132.html, where it has comment(s). Add comments here or there, if you feel like it. Link Who loves you?

Good / bad / maybe ♥Dec. 21st, 2012 // 02:30 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, riding, riding: andrew, work ] GB seems to be a bit perkier than he was, which is nice. On Wednesday, I took GB to my lesson and he was pretty much his normal self. Today, I rode him in the school and he wasn't quite so up for it, but then he spent yesterday standing in his stable because of the rain, so he might just have been stiff. I finally got hold of the vet to discuss GB's worm test results: he prescribed a five-day worming programme, and then a third type of wormer in a fortnight. Poor GB's going to be thoroughly sick of the stuff, but hopefully it'll sort him out and get him back to normal. The down side is no going in the field when he's being wormed, so he's got a few days of staying in the stable to put up with. On the other hand, I bought him an enormous bale of haylage, so he can have a lump of that every day, which should help him put some weight back on as well. If he keeps perking up, I'll be able to get back on the side saddle, which will be nice. On Monday, I had a second lesson on a horse I rode the week before. He's called Andrew, and he's only a baby (five or six), but he seems generally very nice and (mostly) sensible. (Mostly: the lesson this week involved a lot of slow work, and so had the one he'd been on immediately before. He wanted a run. He really wanted a run. He asked nicely a few times, then a bit less nicely, and then decided that he was going to have a run whatever I thought, complete with throwing bucks in. Mike was behind us, and said it looked quite impressive....) Watch this space, but we shall see, we shall see.... We had a big Ocado order due in on Wednesday evening. The chap looked very apologetic as he came up the stairs, and explained that a bottle of wine had broken in one of our crates, and The Rules said that he couldn't let us have anything out of it. Fortunately, it was mostly either non-urgent stuff or things I could get from Lidl on the way home from the yard, but Mike will have to brave a shop to get the wine. I'm Working From Home over the next few weeks, owing to office move chaos. It's been quite pleasant this week, particularly as I've ditched Sage (huzzah!), although there is an enormous stack of files behind the sofa.... Link Who loves you?

Pony woes ♥Dec. 12th, 2012 // 03:42 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, culture, riding, theatre ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/887622.html ] Sigh. Having managed to entirely get rid of the last lot of pinworm, GB's started scratching his bum again in the last couple of days.... Presumably, he has a favourite scratching post somewhere in the field, and managed to reinfect himself with it. More worryingly, he's lost about 20kg in the last couple of months. I did think that he'd lost weight because he'd had that time off work, but now that I've done another measurement and looked at the trend (I have a nifty little graph on my phone that I use to keep track of it), it's still going on so that can't be the only thing. He's been a bit pathetic over the last few days, too. So, today I got the vet to come and look at him. The vet wandered up the yard, got pointed in the right direction, came up to the stable and said "Oh, it's grumpy that I'm here to see!" The current working hypothesis is that, as well as the pinworm, which doesn't really do anything but give them an itchy bum, being back, he's also picked up encysted redworm, which tends to cause weight loss and lethargy. (In discussing it with the yard owner later, she pointed out that he didn't get the usual wormer - which covers redworm - last time around, because he'd just had the pinworm specific - which may not.) (He's likely to be very susceptible to worms, both because he's such and old man and because he spent the last decade in a pretty much worm-free environment, so he's got no resistance.) So, plan is that there's a poo sample going off to the lab for an egg count, and hopefully it will be positive for redworm, which we can treat at the same time as the pinworm. If the count is clear, it's probably time for blood tests and such, which I'm sure will be delightful (even today, GB slammed the vet into the wall in revenge for using a stethoscope on him. I dread to think what drawing blood would be like). The vet's also going to send over a bottle of magic potion that I can put on his bum to actually kill the eggs (have to wonder why the previous vet didn't give me some of that, but there we go). On the plus side, we did have a very good lesson. We kept it slow, and by the end of it I was getting a really lovely walk out of him. That's more impressive than it sounds, as he has an incredibly pathetic walk normally. Last Friday, I got a last-minute spare ticket to see Scenes From An Execution. It's a very strange play. We missed the first ten minutes due to too much chatting over dinner, which probably didn't help, but I'm not sure by how much. Link 3 kisses // Who loves you?

I seem to be busy lately.... ♥Nov. 18th, 2012 // 04:11 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, christmas, cons, fish, going out, owie, poorly, riding, riding: side saddle, shopping, work ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/885997.html ] Last Thursday - Country Life Christmas Show: overdose on orange and cinnamon scent, bought a few bits, thought "I could do that" about many bits, thought "I would do that" about slightly fewer. Last weekend - Novacon, lovely. I really enjoy Novacon, these days. Lost of nice chats. Contrary to popular opinion, I did not spend the entire weekend sitting in the same chair, and most certainly had not in fact been there since last year. Monday - new job, first day, sort of. Seems to be doable. Proper start this week. (An observation: About six months ago, one of my big toes started hurting (ultimately, I think, due to a single side saddle lesson in which I Did Something Wrong and kept scrunching my foot up). It got randomly better and worse, until Mike made me go to the GP who gave me a leaflet for a foot clinic, which I never got around to going to. Then I was jumping up in the air trying to read a price tag in Costco when I landed, hard, on the ball of that toe, which was excruciating. Ever since, it's been pretty much fine: I remember thinking, as I walked down the road on the Thursday, that it seemed to be better. I wore Proper Shoes on Thursday, Saturday and Monday, as opposed to the usual yard and riding boots. My toe hurts, now.) Tuesday - went riding in the woods, in the sun. It was lovely. We have very pretty colours this year. At one point, a small tree has fallen annoyingly and (bottom of a hill, just after a corner) dangerously across the path. As I was later planning on coming around that corner and up the hill at speed, I jumped off and moved it. GB happily stood and ate the bits of leaf growing out of the tree stump I'd thrown his reins over. The horse I was with was utterly terrified by the crashing noises. C'est la vie. GB, incidentally, has been a little out of sorts this week: grumpier than usual, although I accept that most people can't tell. Not sure what's up, hopefully it's just the change in the weather, or something. Wednesday - side saddle: getting better at making him listen to the cane, but the grumpiness didn't help. Thursday - stayed at home. Was Domesticated: I'd decided to make bath balls and bath fizzers for people I want to give small presents to (eg, woman who cleans up my horse's shit). Made them all, much to my pleasure, and put them in the spare room to dry out without stinking the flat up. Went to check on them a few hours later and decided that it was probaly worth, for the sake of avoiding the risk of damp in the books, putting the heating on in there a little: the bath bombs were fine, but the ones that were supposed to fizz up as soon as they went into the water had, um, fizzed up. I should have taken a photo, it was quite impressive.... (Relatedly, I've had terrible trouble buying peppermint essence. I tried in Tesco last week, and found the empty place on the shelf where it should have been. Tried again a day or two later, hoping they'd have re-stocked, and found that they'd rearranged the shelf and got rid of the label. No job in Lidl, or Holland & Barrett, either. Gave up and bought it from Amazon, which feels somehow wrong, but there we go.) Friday - felt distinctly crappy (someone at Novacon is to blame, I suspect: coff, choo, sniff), so went to see GB but didn't ride him. Came home and lurked on the sofa. Saturday - went to France and Belgium. Failed to get preferred brand of dishwasher tablets. Refuse to go to Germany just for dishwasher tablets, have set Mike back on the web searching. On the way home, sms from Teenage Girl's mother saying there was a problem, could I call. Later, found out that Teenage Girl has been having "trouble" with other Teenage Girls at the yard, and is too upset / scared to go, hence a morning of sobbing and she didn't go to see GB today. I shall start making enquiries at the yard but I think it's too late; wish Girl had said something to either me or her mother sooner. On the one hand, I could find something else but, on the other, I think I'll just let GB have two days off a week, instead of one, and this means Mike and I can have more flexibility about which weekend day we ride. Sunday - went to the new Horse World Live show, at ExCeL. Crap. I can't imagine there'll be another next year. Dealers were all going mad with boredom, there was pretty much no one there. Stayed about an hour. Came home. Lurked on sofa. On Friday, one of our fish died. Given that it was one of the five still-live members of the batch of ten glowlight tetras that were the first fish we put in the tank (after we gave up on the manufacturer's instructions and just set it up properly) three years ago, this is pretty impressive. Looking at the others, I note that one of them is rather lying on his side and another looks worryingly skinny, but the rest of the fish seem to be doing ok so it's probably age, not a water problem. They've had a pretty good run. Link 8 kisses // Who loves you?

Pony update ♥Oct. 14th, 2012 // 04:02 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, riding ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/883895.html ] GB seems to be back to normal, stomach-wise, today: he ate all his breakfast and was very happy to get his carrot when I went to bring him from the field, and then demolished the extra bit of hay I gave him to make up for his short ration last night. Plus, he'd drunk half a bucket of water (about normal for this kind of temperature) and had a couple of small poos in his stable overnight. He is, however, absolutely knackered. I rode him for about fifteen minutes, and while he was ok I could feel how tired he was. I decided that that was enough and took him out for some grass instead. I'm very, very glad that he's ok. Link 18 kisses // Who loves you?

Another expensive pony day.... ♥Oct. 13th, 2012 // 09:26 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, riding ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/883696.html ] So, having cheerfully decided yesterday that GB was fit and sound, we went up to the yard to see him again today, teenager in-tow on the way to pony club (on a different horse: I told her off when I realised she'd not been going because GB was out of work, and she booked to use a school horse today, and the timings worked so we gave her a lift). He was distinctly grumpy, and kept threatening to kick when I was washing the mud off his back legs, which was odd. We thought maybe he had a fly bothering him on his belly and gave him a squirt of fly spray, and he calmed down. Off to the school, for another gentle ride, and he was lovely, behaved very nicely. We'd just had our first warm-up canter and I was bringing him around to go for one in the other direction when I stopped to chat to Mike, who was on Bessie. GB fidgeted a bit and then... next thing I knew, he was lying down, me still sitting happily on his back. Bugger. Dragged him up and spent the next hour in a relay team forcing him to walk around in circles, covered in sweat, beating him with a stick whenever he tried to lie down, shouting instructions and questions at the designated phoner-to-vets. (This, for the non-horse-experienced, would be classic colic. Horses can neither burp nor vomit, so if they get an upset stomach there's not much that they can do about it. As it's painful, they want to just stop and have a little lie down. Horses guts basically stop working when they lie down. Then they die.) On the plus side, he had half a dozen small poos while we were walking him, and he'd pretty much stopped collapsing tot he floor by the time the vet arrived. The vet got out his lovely long rubber glove and had a feel around, then (with a large amount of barging and complaining) gave him a jab of painkiller and another of muscle relaxant: GB had a lot of gas in his intestine, which was what was causing the trouble. Over the next hour or so, he perked up considerably, and was back to normal (ie, snuggling me and trying to nip Mike). Then he decided to have a lie down. We knew he was tired and a bit doped up, so we thought we'd just keep an eye on him and not worry unless he looked in pain. He lay down and looked woozy. Then he went completely flat out and floppy. At this point, while other people waved their hands in front of his eyes and wiggled his legs in an attempt to get a response, I put in another call to the out-of-hours vet paging service: stoned horse is worrying! While I was waiting for a call back, he woke up a little bit and (very reassuringly) he suddenly jumped to his feet when I happened to open the Treat Cupboard. Phew! Then he went down again. And tried to roll. Up he was dragged, and time to walk and walk and walk and... then the vet got back to me, and said not to worry. See if he wants to eat. Hay. Hay is good. Nom, nom, hay. Ooh, but I would like to lie down, maybe I should go over here and... oh, but hay! Hay! Nom! It would be nice to lie down though, maybe it I go over here and.... oh! Hay! Eventually, he did have a lie down, and a most enormous fart, after whch he got back up and carried on eating his much-reduced dinner. After we left, I had a couple of text messages: he's been both lying down and standing up, doesn't seem to be especially happy but also not in too much distress. Fingers crossed for a nice big pile of poo in his stable when we get there in the morning. Link 7 kisses // Who loves you?

Back on the horse.... ♥Oct. 12th, 2012 // 04:24 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, riding ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/883238.html ] Much to his annoyance ("What? No! I don't do this any more!"), I stuck GB's saddle on him today, two weeks since the vet's visit and several days since there'd been any heat in his leg. I took him in the school. He was a little stiff in the walk at first, but he was fine after a few minutes. I was starting to get worried that he was being very obedient and hadn't even had a little buck, but then he decided that the scary corner was especially today and started trying to run away from it in a much more normal way (although it was windy, so I suppose I can let him off. It didn't help that, on the third try at making him actually canter into the corner, a car went past quite fast and spooked him all over again. We mostly managed on number five, and I let it go at that). I rode him for about fifteen minutes, then jumped off to check the leg: still fine. To his even greater annoyance, I then got back on him and did some of the stuff that he'd really been having trouble with: no problems, he span around quite happily in both directions, and did some lovely corner lines straight off. I jumped off again: still fine. I led him out of the school, to his pleasure, and then got a filthy look when I got back on him *again* in the yard: I wanted to try him out on a hard surface, so we had a nice spanking trot up the lane and back. Checked his leg again: still fine. Got a second, and third opinion: still fine. Phew. Assuming that it's all ok tomorrow, he's officially back in work. (He was only out there for about half an hour, and was already getting sweaty. He's doing his annual mammoth impersonation, but I've put off clipping him as there was no point until he came back into work. That'll be a job for next week, then! At least you can't see his grey so much when he's hairy....) Link 2 kisses // Who loves you?

GB update ♥Oct. 6th, 2012 // 09:06 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, going out, riding ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/883186.html ] I'm pleased to say that, other than being a bit bored, GB seems to be much better. Admittedly, he's still on anti-inflamatories, but his leg seems to be going back to normal. He has another few days off, and then I'll try getting on him. I may have to take the superglue (actually, I may just get the sidesaddle out: see if you can make me fall out of that, you bugger). He has seemed rather bemused, this week: I keep going to see him, getting him in from the field, grooming him, completely failing to ride him, letting him have some grass and then putting him back into the field. It's all very odd. I enlivened this a few days ago by lunging him. Well, trying to. I managed to get a trot out of him, but he's never really been very good at lunging, and when I tried to get a canter he just sped up and trotted really really fast until I got dizzy and gave up. Hours, or at least twenty minutes, of entertainment for everyone else on the yard! Last night, we failed to see Charlie's Aunt at the Mernier, on account of migraine. Today, we went to the South Of England showground's Game Fair, which was (at least as far as we were concerned) unique and unusual as a Game Fair due to the complete and utter absence of any game products whatsoever. The nearest thing was a stall selling farmed duck; we were bemused, having expected to come away with a boot full of meat to freeze. Nice day out in the sun, even so, and I got to watch the Flying Foxes, a sidesaddle display team, as well as looking at things like leeks that would in fact feed a family of four for a week. I have to wonder what they do with the ones that aren't perfect enough to show.... Link 4 kisses // Who loves you?

Expensive pony day.... ♥Sep. 28th, 2012 // 05:01 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, riding ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/882606.html ] GB has managed to cost me quite a bit today, I suspect. (Only suspect, as I haven't had the vet bill yet....) Last Wednesday, he was Not Right in my lesson, and kept stumbling on one leg to the point that I gave up and took him home. Got the vet out, on the grounds that there's no call-out charge on Wednesday (the vet comes to Bexley twice a week, so everyone saves up problems for those days!), vet couldn't see anything. Rode him again on Thursday, he was stiff on that leg but only a few stumbles. Gave him Friday off. On Saturday, the teenager rode him at Pony Club. Pony Club did a gymkhana. I suspect if I'd known that then I would have told her not to use him.... But, she said there were no problems, so ok. Stiff again on Sunday, so I told the teenager that she couldn't ride him on Monday. On Tuesday, I was expecting the back lady to come and check him out anyway, so I decided not to ride until she'd had a look and seen if she could find anything wrong. But she got her days wrong, so I was out of time, so he had another day off. On Wednesday, I went off to my lesson again, and he seemed less stiff (although I did at one point ask him to do something Quite Hard on his sore side. He half did it, then stopped and thought for a moment before performing it perfectly in the other direction, as if to say "this is much easier, you know...."), but then when we got back and the back lady started to look at him, she said "his leg's hot...." (Hot legs are a generally Bad Thing for horses. It's often the first sign of any trouble.) (On the plus side, this was the first time he'd actually had a checkable problem, which was a Good Thing in my book!) She recommended light work, hose the leg down afterwards to get rid of the lump-and-heat if the exercise made it reappear; vet next local-day if it was no better. So I did that on Thursday, and planned to do it again today. Only when I brought him in from the field the lump-and-heat were already there. Phoned the vet. Not an emergency, so I had to hang around for a few hours to wait for someone to come. Spent the time watching all the other people on the yard fall over at the idea that someone might get a vet in on a non-local day, when you have to pay money, for a horse that wasn't about to keel over already keeled over. After some poking and watching him run up and down, the vet's given him 'bute (horse ibuprofen, pretty much exactly) and prescribed a fortnight of no work but he's still to go in the field. I would imagine that he's delighted by this. If he shows any sign of lameness then he has to stay in, but I very much hope that that won't happen. The problem's in his tendon sheath: he's had windgalls (puffy fluid build-ups) on his back legs for a few years, now, but on one leg it's almost like all the fluid's collected in one, denser spot, rather than being spread out. He's probably just torn the sheath slightly (possibly in the first of last Wednesday's stumbles, possibly not). If it doesn't right itself in the next couple of weeks, we can have ultrasound done (at the yard, ain't technology great?) but "at his age, we'll probably see all sorts of old pathologies", which sounds like a recipe for causing worry! So, call out fee and a fortnight's worth of 'bute. And then I said "Oh, by the way... he's and an itchy bum for a couple of months. Someone said yesterday as I was washing it that they thought it was pinworm...?" Yep, classic case thereof, not even going to bother to do a test for eggs. It's just a shame that it's largely resistant in Kent, these days.... Headed off to the local tack'n'feed place and got a couple of doses of wormer, but no idea if it will work (especially as you're also supposed to treat the place where they've been scratching. So, that would be "the field", then?). I'll keep on with the medicated shampoo, as well. And, apparently, spread vaseline around his bum so that, when the females poke themselves out from his gut to lay their eggs, they won't be able to stick them down. That was probably more information than anyone wanted, wasn't it? I shan't describe what the process (which I now realise I've seen without realising) looks like, ok...? I might see if anyone at the yard has a horse that they need exercising for a couple of weeks.... Link 4 kisses // Who loves you?

Tired now. ♥Aug. 26th, 2012 // 05:51 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, riding, riding: shows, riding: side saddle, shows ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/880830.html ] Today was our little local riding club show, conveniently held at our yard. So we had to join in, really. I would tell you all about it, but I'm far too knackered. You'll have to ask GB about it instead. We do, however, have a pretty respectable haul: Mike points out that his second and third mean that he did better than I did on average.... I'm sure he'll post some photos later. Link 4 kisses // Who loves you?

Limpics ♥Aug. 2nd, 2012 // 04:21 pm♥ [Tags | olympics, riding, riding: shows ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/879858.html ] We went to see day one of the dressage, today. It was far too hot, and it rained torrentially, but other than that the weather was ok. They had nifty little radio things that you could buy for a tenner, that gave you commentary as the tests were going on: very useful. Shame that they weren't mentioned in the leaflet that came with the tickets, and the commentator didn't mention them until after the first batch of riders had already finished. If anyone wants to borrow them until the paralympics, shout. The programme is utterly pointless. I bought the daily one, on the grounds that the full one was far too thin to actually have any detail in it. The daily one also has no details about the events, it's just full of 'interesting' stats about the sports and photos of people who did well the day before. I did see some people who had actual lists of the competitors, but they didn't have them at the places selling the radios and programmes, and they didn't come with the tickets, so no idea where you were supposed to get them or how you were supposed to know they existed. The range of food was superficially pretty good, but it's over-priced (£6 for a sausage inna bun), some of it (eg, nachos) looked really grim, and the fish and chip place was hugely busy. In fact, the only queue I saw all day that was bigger than the one for the fish and chip place at lunch time was the one for the water tap beforehand. But, the dressage went very smoothly, no embarrassing waiting around for the riders, only one horse had a hissy fit (but, my, what a hissy fit it was! That's Canada out of the team contest!), and only three or four of the competitors got utterly drenched. Oh, and the commentators ranged from pretty good (the radio guy, although I can't figure out where he was sitting: he didn't actually be able to see the arena, so he kept missing things), through fairly good (the guy doing the main announcements, between the tests) to utterly inane and dire (the perky woman interviewing members of the crowd / riders who knew naff all about horses and was intensely irritating). We ducked out before the last rider, mostly because they'd announced that they would be letting people out in blocks and the thought of fighting upstream through the crowd to our bus stop was depressing. There were a surprisingly large number of people not actually watching, just sitting outside on the grass. Odd. Link 6 kisses // Who loves you?

Note to self: ♥Jul. 24th, 2012 // 01:57 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, riding ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/879401.html ] When hacking out whilst wearing leggings rather than proper jodhs, try to avoid going down narrow paths with 5' high nettles on either side. Nettle rash on the knees is annoying.... GB has managed to trash his new headcollar. I think we can take that as a sign that he doesn't like control headcollars, but I'm afraid that I do so I'll be getting a new one. Link 2 kisses // Who loves you?

Busy busy ♥Jul. 23rd, 2012 // 02:46 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, craft, culture, going out, riding ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/879117.html ] The basketry course got better, thankfully. The second and third days involved far more doing and far less waiting for the instructor to demonstrate, so it was a lot less annoying. On the first two and a bit days, I made a green basket with yellow spikey bits, which I don't like at all. (When she was showing us the things we could make, I thought 'ew, no, not that style', but then it grew on me. Then it un-grew. Plus, they're not really my colours, much too bright.). On the rest of the third day, I made a nice curve-shaped basket in various shades of dark green, which I like much much more. Picture with really bad colours: (It's not actually the same colour as our carpet!) I completely failed to see a dance performance on Thursday evening at Tate Modern: I woke up in the morning and was utterly knackered, so I cancelled. I was feeling better by the weekend, though: garden party on Saturday evening, Marcus Brigstock doing a practice gig for Edinburgh on Sunday, and we went out to ride both mornings. GB wasn't terribly happy with the heat on Sunday, though, so this morning I headed off bright and early (or at least, once the bloody torch had cleared my route) before it got too hot. But he still wasn't terribly happy. He's been very clingy, and keeps snuggling up against me: I think he's missing his boyfriend, who moved to a different yard on Saturday. It's slightly cruel, but I hope the boyfriend doesn't settle: if he doesn't, he's coming back to us and getting a stable instead of living in the field. I wonder, only semi-jokingly, if one can get prozac for ponies? Link 4 kisses // Who loves you?

Riding.... ♥Jul. 17th, 2012 // 02:56 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, riding, riding:bess ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/878742.html ] Today, I rode Bessie. Now my bum hurts: she's a bouncy pony! I had to ride Bess, because GB's off work: I got to the yard on Sunday and he'd had a huge chunk bitten out of him, by a pony from the size of it. Annoyingly, it looked very close to the saddle, so I thought I'd give him a couple of days off. Today, I actually put the saddle on him, to see if I could get away with it, and discovered that, no, it's not close to the saddle, it's under it. Sigh. So, he's got a few more days off, at least. On the plus side, I'm not going to be there for the next few days anyway, because I'm doing a course on basketry, so I suppose it works out ok! Link 6 kisses // Who loves you?

Riddle me... ♥Jul. 4th, 2012 // 10:51 pm♥ [Tags | driving, riding, shopping ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/877074.html ] A few days ago, Mike sent me to Tesco* in search of (amongst other things) pancetta. I went to the bacon-and-sausages place, and I looked and looked and eventually found a single brand of same, that wasn't the same brand as wot Mike usually buys. Today, I was buying completely unrelated things but hungry, so I was idly looking for tasty and interesting Smoked German Hams, which Mike doesn't like*** and so I have to buy myself****, and there, in the middle of the section labelled 'cooked meat', with a little tag saying 'cook before eating', were three or four types of pancetta. Which is just a bit bemusing, really. For a simple country girl like me, who doesn't know about how supermarkets work.... * I freely admit that I'm Not Very Good at supermarkets. I didn't go in anything that would today be recognised as one until the age of fifteen, and have spent the time since avoiding them where possible, alternating (when I had to go in one) between "Argh! Too big! Too many people!" and "Ooh, shiny! Must by snacks that I won't eat!"** Lately, I have got Much Better about it, which I put down at least partly to Car, which means I don't have to Carry Stuff, and also to general Sanity Levels. ** It's ok, the snacks get eaten. Several days later, this leads to "Ooh, I just fancy an X... Miiiiike! Waaaaah!" *** Oddly, despite my general loathing of anything that can reasonably be described as German Food, I like the processed ham and the processed cheese. Basically, I like the breakfast, but nothing else. **** It had totally never occurred to me to just ask Mike to buy it for me. Wow, shopping has uses! Have just seen the test laser beams shining off the Shard. I ache. This may have something to do with a) not making it to pilates yesterday due to traffic hell, combined with b) new saddle meaning that I can actually make GB do some work, leading to c) having a bloody hard schooling session yesterday that left us both knackered and sweaty followed by d) joining in a group lesson with the side saddle today. I was planning to ride tomorrow morning, but based on current communications I fear my legs may refuse. Plus, I have what I strongly suspect is a horse fly bite, delivered thought a pair of more-than-chino-weight trousers and awkwardly placed on the inside of my knee. Link 3 kisses // Who loves you?

Ouch... ♥Jun. 28th, 2012 // 02:40 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, culture, going out, pictures, restaurants, riding, riding: shows, riding: side saddle, weddings ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/876759.html ] Today, we had a visit from the saddler. GB had been a bit unhappy with his saddle for a while now, somewhat compensated for by putting a big foam pad under it, but it took a while for me and the saddler to synchronise our diaries. The saddler was very confused: GB hadn't changed shape particularly since the last visit (when I was surprised that the saddle got the all clear, as it had been bashed around rather at the riding school), so it should have all been fine, but it obviously wasn't. After a bit of delving around inside, he concluded that my air bags had leaked.... (Saddles used to be stuffed, to shape them to the horse's back and provide padding, but some of the newer ones, including mine, have replaced that with airbags, which have the advantage of moulding themselves to the horse better.) Whilst it would be possible to replace them, it would cost more than the saddle is worth, and nearly half the cost of the latest model of that saddle (which I like anyway), so. Still, as I said, it wasn't terribly unexpected. And the new saddle is lovely and squishy and well padded, so we should both enjoy it. (And the airbags have a five year guarantee on them!) I've been very crap at updating, lately. Here are some things I have done recently: - been to a lovely wedding reception, and seen lots of people I hadn't seen in a decade, which was both nice and nerve-wracking; - done a dressage competition in the side saddle. Didn't win anything, but my scores were pretty consistent: sixes and fives, with a couple of sevens, in Intro B (59.56%), and fives and sixes, with one four, in Prelim 7 (54%). The arena for the latter had an enormous, tiger-filled pile of bits of jumps next to it, which GB naturally had to a) keep an eye on and b) keep as far as possible away from as possible, so this wasn't that surprising. The arena for the former had a cross country fence near one end, but other than giving it a stern look and having a little buck to make the point that he wasn't doing cross country in the side saddle it was safely ignored. Pics/pics, all terribly small so that I can't tell if there's one where I'm not pulling a silly face / don't have my eyes closed, which I might actually want to buy. Someone forgot his camera; - been to see Democracy, at the Old Vic, which was very interesting if rather long and, in places, slightly wobbilily acted; - been to a lovely sunny-day party-in-a-garden, at which I got to catch up with various people I don't see often enough; - been for a ludicrous long (Mike came and collected me from the pub on his way home from work, and ended up having dinner with us) and fancy lunch at L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon for Erik's birthday, which featured lovely food but slightly bizarre service: they weren't all that busy, but they kept throwing the food at us, with about two minutes between courses. Then, when they offered coffee and I said "could we have five minutes?" they went away and ignored us for twenty minutes. Most odd. Just to balance the scales, we had pudding (spag bol, because you have to really) at Cafe Ciao, which Erik had never heard of. Tonight, we're off to see One Man Two Guvnors. Phew. Here are some pictures that someone else took at the Big Show, later in the day when my hat had melted and my horse become a ravening beast due to cold and boredom. I love the way that it's raining so heavily that it looks like it's snowing.... Link Who loves you?

Bloody weather ♥Jun. 7th, 2012 // 07:43 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, riding, riding: shows, riding: side saddle, weather ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/875925.html ] Today was the Big Show. It rained. Pretty much continually. Sometimes it got a bit lighter, but then it got heavier again. I mostly couldn't see a damn thing, because my glasses were so covered in water. I fear that the hat from my outfit will not recover, as it has wilted rather and the feathers are distinctly bedraggled. At that, I suspect that my outfit, made out of cheap synthetic fabric, will look rather better in the morning than the ones in sumptuous velvets and silks. One lady had a slight wardrobe malfunction (fortunately after the judging!): her satin skirt got so waterlogged that it ripped open the fastenings at the waist and showed off her petticoat.... (Yes, in the end I rode in the outfit hat, rather than my riding hat: I thought that GB seemed reasonably chilled out, and as it happened he had a little buck in the warm-up arena that made me fairly confident about staying on; this was a good thing, as he proceeded to buck for little or no reason throughout the rest of the day, including right in front of the judges at the start of our individual display.) Speaking of GB, I don't think that he enjoyed it very much: it involved rather more standing around in the rain getting cold and wetter than he would have liked, and then I wouldn't let him charge off in canter to get warmed back up. It was, however, quite fun. We didn't place, so did at best seventh out of nine (should have been sixteen, but the other people were too sensible to turn up!), but it was interesting to do. And cold, and wet. Mike took some photos, but only of the earlier part of the day: it was raining so much that he was worried about damaging his camera, so he put it away in the horse box to keep it dry. Edit: Poor hat.... Link 18 kisses // Who loves you?

♥Jun. 6th, 2012 // 05:12 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, holiday, photos, riding ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/875517.html ] In Ghent, we saw what can only be described as a self-propelled bar, full of what looked like a stag party and powered by lots of cannibalised bicycles. Sadly, we were too busy boggling to take photos. Actually, I didn't take many photos at all (Mike took more). Here are a few: New improved Scrapbook mostly seems to be incredibly slow, and buggy. Sigh. Edit: And the 'insert this image in an entry' auto html generation now crops the image to be square and doesn't link to the bloody original. Sigh. Manual links added. Today, GB had a bath. He was remarkably good about it, considering how few times in his life it's happened before. He went very fluffy afterwards. Having had a week and a bit of no exercise followed by Pilates and riding both yesterday and today, I am knackered. Hopefully, I'll be ok tomorrow. Fortunately, I don't have a grey horse, or I'd be worrying about the forecast rain making my dress run! Link 2 kisses // Who loves you?

May Books ♥Jun. 5th, 2012 // 05:25 pm♥ [Tags | books, holiday, riding, riding: shows ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/875150.html ] ( Here ) (We are back. I feel like I have about a billion things to do, ranging from things like updating my reading list to things like hoping that the weather forecast gets no worse for tomorrow - due to planned horse bathing - and Thursday - due to show. Speaking of, in case anyone plans to come along, I'm in class 444 which is both at 1pm in Hackney and 2:20pm in Ardingly. There may be more updates before then, but I wouldn't bank on it. Mike fixed the sat nav. Belgium was incredibly, depressingly grey, and the shop had run out of the chocolates I wanted when we made a special, soggy, walk into town to get them. The dishwasher detergent that we like has either been discontinued or is not stocked by Carrefour in either France or Belgium. Note to self Mike: check this.) Link Who loves you?

Phew! ♥May. 24th, 2012 // 11:50 am♥ [Tags | riding, riding: shows, riding: side saddle ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/873391.html ] Have just spoken to the lady in charge of my bit of the Big Show: the class numbers in the printed schedule are all wrong; we aren't going to have to join in with the Heavy Horses.... And relax.... Link 3 kisses // Who loves you?

This may be a problem... ♥May. 23rd, 2012 // 07:15 pm♥ [Tags | riding, riding: shows, riding: side saddle ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/873201.html ] When I sent in my forms for the Big Show, I checked very carefully against the list of classes on the website*, and then double checked, and then carefully wrote "Class 444" on my form. I got my paperwork for the show last week, and today I looked at it properly to check timings. There, on my bit of paper, is the class number: 444. They'd helpfully included a copy of the actual printed show schedule, and I checked on that to make sure that the time hadn't changed, and... it appears that class 444 is now the Heavy Horses. My class has been changed to number 442. Naturally, I noticed this after office hours were over, so I shall have to fret about it until tomorrow morning when I can phone them to go "eep". Hopefully, when I ring them, they will be able to change it. * The website information still says that my class is 444, which is in my favour: how was I supposed to know? Hopefully, if they can't change it, I'll be able to get in touch with the Side Saddle Association, and we will find that all of the ladies in their historical costumes are incorrectly in the Heavy Horse class, and that will be enough leverage to get the show to change it. But I may be buggered. Sad face. Link 13 kisses // Who loves you?

There's a reason I don't want kids. ♥May. 15th, 2012 // 03:42 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, riding, riding: side saddle ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/872195.html ] So, I have a nearly-teenaged Girl who rides GB a couple of times a week. She seems fairly sensible, and her mother used to be horsey, so no problems there. Back in February, I asked Girl if she wanted a key to the woods (while it is possible to go out hacking nearby without one, you have to go on the road and it's a bit of a trek). Mother Said No: not until she'd got more experience. Fine by me, and I rather agreed. The other Saturday, in between bits of wedding, I had a SMS from Girl: would it be ok if she rode GB for a second time in one day? I'm generally quite happy for her to do this, depending on how hard he's worked, and I very much appreciate that she asks me. I replied saying it should be fine, but what had she done on the first ride, had he sweated up? Oh, she'd just been out in the woods, walk and trot only. Er, what? I thought she wasn't allowed in the woods, and said so, but said GB'd be ok to do a little bit more. And then after I got back from the wedding, I spoke to Mother, who was furious. Apparently, the little darling had been in the woods a couple of times with Pony Club, and had taken permission to do this to mean she could also wrangle an invite to go out with one of her mates and the adult who was taking her mate. It had only happened once, both Girl and Mother were very sorry, it wouldn't happen again, etc, etc. Today, as it happens, I spoke to the previously-wrangled-adult (who's only actually about sixteen or seventeen: the rules say that you have to have someone over fourteen in any party in the woods). And it turns out that the walk-and-trot-only was what the adult and other kid did: Girl pulled her face and got the adult to agree that, yes, ok, the two of them would continue to walk along *this* path while Girl cantered along *that* path and they would all meet up again *there* at the intersection of the two paths. Girl was not there. Adult was rather panicked and decided that it would be safest to take the other kid further through the woods to the gate, leave her there and then ride back and search for Girl's battered remains and / or GB. Fortunately, Girl was also by the gate: apparently, GB just took off with her, she couldn't stop, and he'd gone full-tilt all the way to the gate. (Whilst in some ways this doesn't surprise me (the fear that she wouldn't be able to stop him if he decided he was going home was one of the reasons I was happy for her not to be allowed up there), I find it very hard to believe that he would willingly canter a) that far and b) down the fairly steep hills that he normally minces carefully down. Also, this was not mentioned when she told me how much work he'd done: I find it hard to believe that he didn't sweat up from that.) Adult told her that she'd better check GB's legs carefully when she got back, on account of how cantering full pelt downhill isn't a very good idea, and they all went back to the yard. I don't know who did that checking of the legs, but I'm told that there was some concern that one of them looked 'funny' (he's shown no signs of lameness for me, thankfully, so it can only have been minor if it was there at all). What I do know is that there was also no mention of that when she asked me if she could ride him a second time. I'm not madly concerned that she went into the woods once, but I am concerned that she didn't tell me about a possible injury, and that she lied about what she'd actually done in the woods. And, actually, it's not 'once': she mentioned in passing to the adult that she'd been there a few other times with one of the other (under-fourteen: no idea if anyone else was with them) kids (I've been out with this kid: she rides like a nutter, and I can well believe that she'd canter her young and fit horse down hills). So, I shall have to phone Mother again, probably this evening. I'm trying to decide whether I should give them a chance to discuss it first, so that Mother has the full(er) story, but I can't decide if I should send a SMS saying "You may want to have another conversation with Girl about her hacking exploits and see if there's anything else she'd like to mention" or saying "You may want to 'fess up to your Mother about what you've actually been doing in the woods before I tell her. PS: I rather think you should know to tell me if you think there's something wrong with my horse, and not expect to be able to ride him if there is".... (I, on the other hand, had a rather successful side saddle lesson, followed by GB getting checked by the physio, who made his back and neck go crunch in interesting ways and told me that I need to get the saddler out again.) Edit: Hmm. Have spoken to both Mother and Child: Child promises faithfully that she just said she'd *like* to go out hacking with the other kids (which I'm not sure I believe), that it wasn't that she lost control and GB cantered all the way back, it was just that when they stopped at the meeting place he got ansty and she couldn't stop him from walking off / make him walk back towards the others (which is very believable, far more so than that he would canter all that way, in fact), and that his leg was absolutely fine. Interestingly, Mother made some comment about how she goes up to the riding school for her lesson every Saturday: that's not what I've been hearing from idle comments on the yard. I might speak to the riding school, because if she's not on the yard, and she's not in the lesson, there's really only one place that she could be. This would tie into the fact that I've been noticing for a month or so that his boots (which he wears for hacking and jumping) have been being used. I shall keep an eye on this. Girl is on her last chance with me now, and I've told them both so. I shall mobilise the adults to spy on her for me. Link 14 kisses // Who loves you?

Well, that was embarassing... ♥May. 13th, 2012 // 03:26 pm♥ [Tags | @@, angelo, books, going out, riding ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/872014.html ] Last night was the @@ convention, and as usual we had a team twice the size of any of the others for the quiz: no one minds, because we always do so badly. Only we won. Oops.... Today, I went to see my beloved little shit bag, and he wasn't quite right. Not sure what's up with him, but he was very unhappy about being tacked up and, when we went out in the woods, he really wasn't really interested in anything other than plodding along in walk, even when we went for a canter on the golf course and I asked him if he wanted to go over the jumps that he likes. Not sure what's going on there, but fortunately he's having his back done on Tuesday, so I'll find out if there's actually something wrong or if he was just having a bad day. He has had a busy week (including both my usual lesson and an extra lesson with the side saddle, and a slow-but-over-two-hours-long hack on Friday), but on the other hand he had Wednesday and yesterday off, so... I dunno. Hope he's ok. Needless to say, he's not off his food, which would be really worrying. I've just finished reading the Clarke winner. It's a bit disturbing, isn't it? [shudder] Link Who loves you?

Achy ♥Apr. 19th, 2012 // 03:09 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, grr, ow, pilates, riding, riding: side saddle, weather ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/869666.html ] I've been a bit slack about riding, lately: not going up as often as I should, and spending too much time pootling in the woods instead of doing proper schooling work. (The Plan: one lesson, one side saddle schooling, one cross saddle schooling, one hack. The Reality, for the last month or so: one lesson, one hack, one more hack.) That meant that, when I had my side saddle lesson on Tuesday, I'd not actually used the side saddle since my previous side saddle lesson a fortnight before. And then my instructor seems to have decided that I need to get on with doing more than just pootling around working on my position for the big show*, so she seems to have worked me harder than usual. But I really don't think I deserved to wake up on Wednesday morning feeling like I'd been thoroughly beaten (the fact that I strained something in my arm/back trying to hold on whilst a certain little shit bag dragged me around the field on the end of a rope probably didn't help, either). But, I am trying to do better and ride more, and anyway exercise would help, so off I toddled to the yard, carefully timing my visit for the forty-five minute gap in the rain that the Met Office and Meteox both agreed was going to happen, and everyone laughed at me for believing the weather forecast and then gave me a funny look when it stopped raining and the sun came out for half an hour before the rain returned. And we had a good schooling session, but gosh did I ache when I got off, and even more so when I got home and tried to get out of the car and walk up the stairs.... So it was that, this morning, I still felt like I'd been thoroughly beaten, but I thought I would be good again, so off I toddled to Pilates, because exercise would help, and the instructor 'helpfully' threw in some exercises to stretch out my aching muscles, and then I went to the yard thinking I'd ride. But the school was busy, and the woods would be muddy, and anyway the heavens opened about ten minutes after I'd decided to be slack and just put GB back in the field to replace his layer of mud, so it was probably the right decision to come home and sit on the sofa, wondering just who it is that keeps beating me up while I sleep every night. (If it weren't for the fact that I feel otherwise utterly fine, I'd say that I must be coming down with something. But I feel fine. It's very odd.) (Grr. When I started working, I made my loan swap her day from Thursday to Monday, which was much less convenient for her mother. I asked her last week if she wanted to change back, and she said she did, so today I swapped my Pilates class to Wednesday. I just sent her a sms asking if she wanted to swap back from next week or the week after, and she's replied "well, my mum wondered if I could just keep Monday?" Grr. Particularly coming, as this does from the incident at weekend when I got dragged into the middle of the two of them having a mother vs teenaged daughter bitch fight.) * I don't think I mentioned the big show. I should do a post about that. Link 2 kisses // Who loves you?

Oh, right, yeah, you have to actually make updates, I remember. ♥Apr. 17th, 2012 // 06:55 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, cons, eastercon, going out, riding, weddings ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/869593.html ] Things that have been happening: - Appendix appears to have decided to shut up and behave itself. This is good. - Leg is still numb. Riding side saddle today made it neither worse nor better, so I'm going to declare it to be ok to carry on riding! - I'm becoming increasingly concerned and annoyed with the place I took a shirt into to get it taken in (for The Wedding): the woman must have had it for a month, now, and is *still* being vague, slow, overworked and taking at least a week between communication. Hopefully, this is going to stop soon: the last fitting seemed pretty much done, to me, and I've told her I absolutely have to have it by Friday. On the other hand, I told her that last Wednesday, at which time she said she'd do some work and want me to come in today for the honest, promise, last fitting. When what she actually did was phone me this morning to say that she'd been really busy and it would have to be tomorrow. Sigh. - erikvolson came to see me! Yay! - There was an Eastercon. I seem to have done even worse than usual in the not managing to actually speak to people stakes, which I put down to a) lack of proper bar and b) being busy on both Saturday and Sunday evenings. On the plus side, although I was moderately busy with it, manning the Chicon table wasn't exactly a busy and stressful thing to be doing. The Hugo nomination reception seemed to go ok, even if Costco failed me on the cake front. - I went to Sheffield, where it is really bloody cold. And not terribly organised [g]. Still, at least we mostly managed to dodge the rain. Interminable train journey, on a Sunday, though. Mike has deeply suspect plans for split site Eastercons. vgrumpybastard continues his delightful mix of charming sweeties and vicious bastard. I must confess that he seems to be leaning a little more than usual towards the latter, lately. I have had complaints mutterings about his behaviour when he's being mucked out, for example, although in his defence on that day T's Mum had unilaterally decided to tell the staff not to turn him out, because it was *raining* (oh, poor didums... also, he has a bloody mountain of rugs to choose from! Also also, not made of sugar!), so I'm not surprised he was pissed off; I have had words, but I suspect it may be a duck's back situation. I think he may be a little bored. I've not been schooling him as much as I like, frankly, quite apart from the fact that I've not been riding him as much as I'd like. Must do better. Quite convenient, this quitting one's job thing, then. Link 7 kisses // Who loves you?

I'm very worried about the weather.... ♥Mar. 30th, 2012 // 03:44 pm♥ [Tags | cons, eastercon, riding, riding: side saddle, weather ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/868436.html ] ... if it's going to be hot over Easter, I may have to re-think my planned outfit for the Hugo reception! (Speaking of which, I need to get a box of fliers to Eastercon on the Thursday, and won't be arriving myself until the Friday: I don't suppose anyone would be able to take them? I'll have them on Tuesday, I expect: they're being couriered and it looks like they'll arrive on Monday, so I'll be having a Driving Adventure to go to the depot in Dartford on Tuesday after I've ridden.) But it is quite nice, there being a drought and all. The woods, where I've been riding loads lately for one reason or another, are drying out nicely, so that GB isn't having to pick his way through mud, and it's all very nice. I even went out there with the side saddle on Sunday, but I don't think I'll be repeating the experiment often: I was incredibly achy for my side saddle lesson on Tuesday, and I have a patch of skin on my right leg that's been vaguely numb ever since. Plus, GB found it very hard work, as I couldn't get my weight off his back on the hills, and he's now got a bit of a rub from the girth. (I didn't go in the woods today. I was feeling guilty about not having practised anything I'd been doing in my lessons for the last couple of weeks, so I was a good girl and went in the school to give us both a proper work out. And then I succumbed to peer pressure and did a few jumps to give him a change. He likes his jumps, does my little shit bag.) Yesterday, I got the sewing machine out for the first time in ages and made a mock-up of a side saddle apron. I think it's probably doable for me to make a proper one, so I'll have a look for some fabric and give it a go, after I've sat on the horse in the mock-up to check the fit on the legs. Work is almost unbearably tedious and dull. I may give up. Link 7 kisses // Who loves you?

Riding ♥Mar. 20th, 2012 // 02:53 pm♥ [Tags | riding ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/867872.html ] The lesson was Obviously Doomed... ... I woke up feeling blergy, presumably with the same thing that's had Mike getting the tube rather than walking to work.... ... I realised that GB had broken all my nice whips, so I had to dig out the one that I don't like (it hasn't got a knob on the end, so I randomly drop it at inconvenient times if I'm not constantly paying attention to it)... ... my instructor still hadn't turned up by ten past... ... and when she did, she had her horse with her. "Are you here for me? Bloody office! This is the second time today I've tacked my horse up to ride!"... ... and then about ten minutes later someone else had a nasty fall and spent the rest of my lesson sitting on the floor in the middle of the arena, while various first aid and ambulance types went too and fro and we rode very sedately at the far end of the space... ... but, for all that, we did really well. My position was better than usual, so GB was having a very nice trot on him and periodically dropping into an outline, and it was just generally very positive. Phew. My homework is to try to get that combination of me and him again, and to work on right-handed half circles. So, you know, no chance. Link 4 kisses // Who loves you?

Double oops.... ♥Mar. 19th, 2012 // 10:14 pm♥ [Tags | pictures, riding, riding: side saddle, shopping ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/867591.html ] On Saturday, on the way up to Cambridge, we took a small detour. I'd read a blog post about a place called the Sandon Saddlery, something of a cross between a tack shop and a junk shop, that bemoaned the fact that all of the second had side saddle clothes were either incredibly tatty or had a 28" waist, so I rather had to go and have a look. And, oopsie, I came away from it with a side saddle jacket and apron, for about half what I'd pay on eBay. And then on Sunday we went down to the yard, and I tried them out. And, double oopsie, the apron is too short. Sigh. On the plus side, they weren't on sale as a matched set, the saddlery has a seven-day return policy, and Mike's back up in that neck of the woods this Saturday. I'll keep the jacket, though, as it strikes me as being a lot easier to make an apron than a jacket. Plus, I know know what measurements I actually need from an apron for it to fit me. And, even given that it was too short, it did look pretty! At least, it did if you skip over the pictures that Mike took of me mounting astride, getting my leg tangled up in the apron as I moved it over, fishing the apron out from between my legs and under my bum, and so on.... (The hem of the apron should be a hand's width or so above the lower-down ankle, so it is much too short. And, yes, my right shoulder is too far forwards. Sigh. I seem to be only able to get the position Just Right for short bursts of time, and even then only when my instructor is constantly correcting me. On the plus side, I do have a very easy way of telling if I'm right, because GB drops down into an outline for me. I think I managed that once, for about three strides, on Sunday.... No, I'm not going to start riding in a bowler hat. And it was much too early in the day for a topper.) Also on Sunday, I saw a gorgeous outfit on eBay: It was only £75, too. But Mike pointed out that I really wouldn't have many opportunities to wear it.... Link 12 kisses // Who loves you?

Things I have done ♥Mar. 11th, 2012 // 08:59 am♥ [Tags | angelo, birdies, culture, food, going out, riding, riding: side saddle, shopping ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/866036.html ] We went to see My Life Story last weekend, in the end. It was, as ever, a cracking gig, but after half an hour of hanging around and being moved from one sanitised part of the venue to another, we gave up on staying for the after-gig-gig and came home. Still, worth going. I just wish the Astoria was still going! I finally got something to do at work. This made work better. I am now no longer on the verge of walking out, instead I'm just quietly waiting for it to go belly up. My friend Toni brought her horses to the same yard as me. This is generally good, as it's nice having her there, but I fear it may get a little wearing having her mum there all the time. On the very much plus side, Mike likes riding one of them very much, and did so today: I suspect he'll be riding her a lot, which is good for him. I, on the other hand, have been riding GB, as ever. I had a good but hard work lesson, I took him out for a nice ride in the woods (in which we slightly-illegally scooted out of the woods and into some land owned by a farmer; GB immediately perked up and started strolling along at a cracking pace. He is much happier out in the open than in the woods, bless him. I need to figure out other open places I can take him), and I got the side saddle out for a ride (hadn't been on it in weeks, and I have a lesson with it next week! Bum hurts, now, worryingly only on one side, so I must have been wonky), and today we had a good session in the arena, with -- as he obviously was dying to have a go - a couple of little jumps at the end. On Thursday, I did pilates (still enjoying it; much better now I'm in the right class!), rode, and then we went to see Comedy Of Errors at the National: very good performance, with the slight niggle that the guy playing the Duke, who was obviously trying to be Gene Hunt, didn't manage to pull it off. On Friday, I was walking out on the way to an early dinner with Erik when - horrors! - I saw a girl throwing stones into the dock. As I got closer, I saw that she was throwing them at the swans! As I got closer still I saw that she was throwing them at the just-starting-to-breed pair, who'd managed to pen a year-old cygnet behind one of the emergency escape ladders at the side of the dock, where it had wedged its wing between two of the rungs and thus made itself a very easy target for being beaten up. A couple of quick phone calls, and the swan rescue van was on its way, with me and the girl under instructions to try and keep the adults clear and try and stop the cygnet from pulling itself free. We managed the first but sadly not the second, and of course as soon as it was free again the adults decided it was back to being a threat and started after it again. My long scarf made quite a good swan repellent, as did a small group of schoolgirls who stopped to watch the drama. Eventually, after being stuck behind a broken-down car in the tunnel, the swan man drove up and came out of his van with a telescoping pole with a U-shaped hook on the end, which he got around the cygnet's neck (it was cowering under the bridge, shivering, by this point) and used to lift it straight out of the water by the head, much to my surprise. He got it sitting down, told us to hold its wings against its body, and dashed off to get a duffel bag, into which he strapped the rather bemused cygnet before carrying it off, with its head poking out of the top of the bag, to taking it to the sanctuary. I really should have taken pictures. (On the plus side: it does look like we might get cygnets of our own this year, for the first time in a while!) So, I was rather late for dinner, but I did have the best excuse ever, followed by very tasty food (other than the pudding: we went for tapas, and I quite fancied a Creme Catalan for pudding, but it was utterly over blow-torched and was completely liquid when it arrived. I sent it back and was informed that the chef said it was supposed to be like that: er, no) . On Saturday, we ate even more tasty food, and saw a traveller from afar, in Reading, and then today we went to the yard, decided we couldn't really be bothered to trek out to Hammersmith for the Douglas Adams thing, and went to Bluewater instead (shopping list: new riding bras, shoes for wedding, wool, new Soda Stream gas thing. Items bought: wool, Soda Stream thing, baking trays, trousers, on-sale thermal tops, an entire new set of cutlery. Oops. Does anyone want some cutlery? Knives, spoons and forks, twelve of each except there are only eight forks and the range is discontinued, which is why we needed a new set....). After Bluewater, we had a little drive around Kent looking at possible places to live (I've decided that I don't want to move GB again, so if we move while he's still around then it will have to be somewhere out that way. As Mike points out, this means that our choice of place to retire to is being fixed by my refusal to drive through the Rotherhithe Tunnel...); there are some nice little towns out there, though, and it's good for the M25, and there's topography, so.... Link 4 kisses // Who loves you?

February books ♥Mar. 3rd, 2012 // 11:19 am♥ [Tags | books, pilates, riding ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/865073.html ] ( here ) Pilates on Thursday was much better than the previous week, now I'm in my proper class: I'm still a bit achy today, so it must be doing something right! Also on Thursday, GB and I went out for a nice gallop on the golf course, much to the surprise of the two old men having a mid-game wee in the bushes by the side of the bridle path.... Link Who loves you?

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