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Vets ♥Jun. 5th, 2015 // 01:44 pm♥ [Tags | horses, riding:jonny ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/1090571.html ] The vet came to see Baby today, to check him out for the sale. This was, of course, the worst possible weather: hot, humid, thundery. Given that one of the things you have to do is canter the horse around in circles until his heart rate goes above a certain level, and given that he's difficult to canter in the school at the best of times, and indeed given that I'm not very good in the heat, I wasn't looking forward to it. On the plus side, the vet got to see him (fail to) react to the thunder when a couple of storms slid to the north and south of us, which he'll hopefully pass on. When we came to the ridden bit, he actually did pretty well. It was probably the most cantering in one go that he's ever done. After we'd gone around a fair few times, I could feel that he was about to give up in despair. "He's about to break," I shouted to the vet. "Just do another circuit," he replied as we came to an in-elegant halt. Fortunately for my heart rate, after having a listen he pronounced himself satisfied, so we could stop! So, everything went well, and the only thing that the vet found wrong was that he has mites in the long hair around his feet. We already knew that, and had told the people buying him, so it shouldn't be a problem: it's not really a very serious problem. I think the plan now is that they'll do a bank transfer this afternoon and then come to collect him tomorrow. (We did get a storm here, in the end. Inevitably, it was while we were up in the woods with Jo.... Mmm, soggy all around.) Link Who loves you?

Gardening ♥Feb. 1st, 2015 // 04:49 pm♥ [Tags | garden, riding:jonny ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/1067452.html ] Today's forecast snow didn't materialise (although we were pretty convinced it was about to a couple of times), so we've been doing bits of gardening in the bitterly cold wind. I've pruned some grasses and one of our Mystery Shrubs*, and we re-potted the patio peach tree (as opposed to the orchard peach tree, the concept of re-potting that being somewhat alarming) into a bigger tub. That involved digging up a bit of lawn (the Sainted Bob Flowerdew says that putting a layer of upside-down turf in the bottom of pots is The Best Thing Evah (I paraphrase)), but that's ok as we'll shortly be digging up a whole lot more lawn (to put into the bottoms of the new veg planters) and then Doing Something Different there (see previous post re: three tonnes of rock). * The one (that isn't lavender) next to Jodie in this picture. It had been cut back to the base before, so I figured it was probably ok to do it again.... Edit: the not-terribly-accurate diagram that we have of that bed suggests that it might be spirea 'goldflame', which looks quite but not entirely similar. You're only supposed to take out a third of the stems each year, but we'll see what happens. I'm planning on taking out all the shrubs on this side of it anyway, so no great hardship if it goes. We've also had a rather bracing ride, during which GB showed signs of developing a scary corner of the school: I shall keep an eye on that, next time I ride him, but it was very windy so he has some cause. Baby was (for him) really quite good: I managed about 1.5x 20m canter circle on one rein and about 0.75x on the other, without doing my usual trick of letting him think he was just cutting the corners in a very symmetrical manner. Link Who loves you?

Timings ♥Oct. 30th, 2014 // 04:22 pm♥ [Tags | horses, house, riding:jonny ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/1048369.html ] 45 minutes before the woman arrived to look at Baby, inevitably, the drain guy finally called to say he'd be with us in half an hour. Fifteen minutes later, the dishwasher guy called to ask if he was supposed to drive through the gate with the cows on the other side of it to get to us. Oh, and Mike realised that he had a work meeting half an hour after she was due. Dishwasher guy was first, and then drain guy. This was pretty good timing, as it turned out: some poking about by drain guy revealed a pipe with an opening for his pokey stick in the porch, but the first few times he tried it came out of the dishwasher drain rather than the sink. Still, he managed to get it sorted pretty quickly and headed on his way. While I was in the house seeing what was going on ("Is there a problem? Why did he leave so quickly?"), horse girl arrived, with an older friend, and we showed her Baby for a bit. Dishwasher guy decided that it was the circuit board, not the heater, and went away to order a new one: three to five days. We tacked Baby up and I tasked Mike with taking GB back up to the field, so that he could watch while we were riding. A few minutes later, Mike lead Baby out to the school while I caught GB and took him to the field. Baby obliged me with a lovely canter, first time, in the good direction, and a less good one the second time in the bad one. Embarrassingly for everyone, horse girl (who retrains difficult horses for a living) couldn't get him to canter for her. It was generally agreed that he's got a lovely nature and beautiful paces but was a bit green. We suggested that they bring her other half down to try it out (possibly with one of her horses as well, so that they could try a little hack), so we'll see what comes of it. Still, at least my sink works, now. And Mike knows how to fix it if it blocks up again (although he's also bought things that you stick down the plug holes to continuously release enzymes, which should help stop it from happening again). And Esme's hiccups have stopped. Link Who loves you?

Ow, you bugger ♥Jul. 8th, 2014 // 12:09 pm♥ [Tags | orchids, pictures, riding, riding:jonny ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/1023758.html ] Normally, when I complain about horse-related pains it's because GB is a git. Today it's because I had a lesson on the Baby: my back is killing me now. I dread to think what it will be like tomorrow. Still, we made some good progress, and Mike did very well on GB, so I suppose that it was worth it. When I was riding with Mrs Next Door, we were talking about side saddle and I was saying that I was thinking of sending mine back, as I never use it. She mentioned that she knows someone who teaches side saddle and lives locally, so: lesson on Sunday. That'll be painful, as well. Yesterday, we went out to the wild flower reserve to walk the pooch. Mike spotted a white admiral: There were masses of pyramidal orchids in the grass: (We're wondering what The Next Orchid will be. There only ever seems to be one kind on the go at once, so far.) Link Who loves you?

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?

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?

Porky pony ♥Apr. 10th, 2014 // 04:19 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, riding:jonny ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/989883.html ] The saddler came to visit this morning, which was well timed: I booked it about a month ago, and about a fortnight ago GB starting whinging about his saddle being uncomfortable. She had a feel around and swapped the metal gullet plate from a black one to a blue one, the next size up. Given that a year ago he was in a green, the next size *down*, and that I've never known him go above a black, I was rather boggled by this. However, when I jumped onboard he did feel freer when he stepped out, and when I asked him for a canter he didn't throw in the little buck he's lately got so fond of and that, thank you hind-sight, was apparently an early warning that his saddle was pinching. We think it must be a combination of the start of the spring grass, the Cushings pills and the fact that our new riding instructor is having me do work that pushes him more, so he's muscling up: he has put on a little on the weigh tape, but he's still well below where he's been with the black plate in, so it must be better muscle development around his shoulders. The Baby's saddle is unchanged, but she was very complimentary about how well he's developing. She's of the opinion that we'll think about getting him a new saddle around this time next year: he's just in a cheapo one at the moment (the same as GB has, so not bad, just cheap!), and while it's not an actively bad / damaging / painful fit, it's also not a brilliant one. There's no point in spending a fortune on a saddle for a horse that's still filling out, though, so we wait, and bits of extra padding are used. Link Who loves you?

Bloody animals.... ♥Feb. 23rd, 2014 // 09:32 pm♥ [Tags | horses, riding:jonny ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/969859.html ] When I went out to give the boys their 6pm (coff) 7pm haylage nets, I noticed that the Baby hadn't eaten, well, any of his dinner time hay. I put it down to his having had extra dinner-time haylage, which was just so tasty that he'd forgotten his hay. GB often has a wee bit of hay left at 6pm, after all. (GB has been getting the extra for a while, because I was worried about his weight: Baby has been dropping off a bit too, so we added it in for him starting today). I then completely forgot to mention it to Mike, as Sunday evening is phoning-the-parents night (and they're probably coming to visit the week after next. Expect Interesting.) I've now been out with their 9pm snacks, and he wasn't shouting 'food now', has still still barely touched the dinner hay, and left some of the haylage in the net. When I put the hay in, he just stood with his head over the door looking pathetic, and snuffling against me (which he never normally does, as I am the Evil Human, dispenser of beatings, rider of having to do some bloody work, and bringer of vet). Am officially Worried. His heart rate seems a little fast/irregular, too, although I'm basing the former on listening to his side, walking next door, and then listening at the side of a much older horse, and his tummy's not as gurgly as GB's, either. It all sounds a bit colic-like to me. This is all complicated by the fact that Mike has a 3:30am work thing, and so Needs His Sleep and really does not need anything extra to keep him awake. So I blithely lied to Mike about them all being fine, sent him to bed, and then sat down and wrote him a list of details and instructions for when he gets up. I'll be out there again, probably more than once, before I go to bed. I really don't feel that I can wake Mrs Next Door up, under the circumstances, but if Baby looks distressed then I might get Mr out of bed to help out until the vet arrives. (I did, seeing a light on, send Mr a SMS saying "***If*** she's still awake and dressed then please let me know" No reply, which either means it's her who's up and unable to sleep or that his phone's got no bloody signal.) Fingers very much crossed that I don't spend half the night walking Baby in circles ('though at least it's not raining!), and can instead tear up my instructions to Mike, leaving him bemused when he sees this post tomorrow.... Edit: I did go and summon the Next Doors. We walked him for a bit, until he started farting like a trooper. When he went back in, he started picking at his hay, which is good. I'll go back out in another hour or so, but I think he's ok.... Another edit: Poo! Yay! Bed now.... Link Who loves you?

Oops ♥Feb. 21st, 2014 // 08:37 pm♥ [Tags | driving, pictures, pilates, riding:jonny ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/968372.html ] I've been terribly slack about posting. A few days offline with guests, and I get out of the habit.... The snowdrops are looking lovely: (With added Jodie: "Human is interesting in that thing over there! I must go and see what it is!") Not far from us, the daffs are already out. It's too cold here, though, they're barely showing buds. So, what have I been up to? Not terribly much, I suspect. We had a riding lesson, on Wednesday. I somehow got stuck not only on the Baby but also spending most of the time in sitting trot. Combined with a much-longer-than-lately hack the previous day, I was quite stiff afterwards. The hack was lovely, though: we went up to a field on the far side of the woods, and had a few lovely canters. The boys seemed to appreciate it, too. They have at least been in the field for the last few days (other than yesterday), but there's not much space to run around in there once we've fenced off the soggy bits. The Next Doors came for dinner last night, which was nice, and Mr Next Door has now replaced both of the front tires on the car, and put the surviving old one onto the spare, which is very good of him. (I was a little worried, driving to Pilates today: I got to very nearly the same point in the journey as I was at when I got the puncture and met a lorry with a huge load of stone, coming up the hill. That was very much my one to reverse, but I know the road and knew it was a good half mile to the next place where I could pull over, with no convenient hedges to guide me along. I went onto the field margin instead, and found it somewhat difficult to get back off again.... Would have been embarrassing to fail to get to pilates twice in three weeks due to car issues!) When I got home, we took the pooch out to the beach, where it only rained enough for there to be a rainbow: We went to Broadstairs, which we've now decided isn't a good enough beach (at least, two hours before high tide) to be worth the drive. Even if there is a Soup Dragon on the roundabout as you come into town. Link Who loves you?

Blowy ♥Feb. 12th, 2014 // 01:30 pm♥ [Tags | garden, pictures, radio, riding:jonny ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/966061.html ] Yesterday, it poured down all morning. On the plus side, the Aga Man came, and now my bum warmer is back in action. I suspect that, when he next comes to service it, we'll need to arrange to be busy doing other things: he charges by the hour, and never stopped talking (except possibly while he was using the vacuum cleaner. I couldn't be sure, though). I suspect that the bill will be smaller if he doesn't have an audience to pontificate to.... On the plus side, the sun came out after lunch. I double-checked the rain radar, and popped out with the pooch. Mrs Next Door had had the same idea (even though Mr Next Door has banned her from going up there on her own, now that the baby's dropped), so we had a nice walk in the woods. When we got back, I guilt-tripped Mike (and myself) into jumping on the boys so that they could get a bit of exercise: I was a little concerned that, when Mike asked for a canter transition, the Baby threw a tiny buck and then carried on as before: he's done it to me a couple of times, but always then picked up the canter immediately, so I was working on the basis that it was only a tiny buck and we could get rid of it later when the canter was more reliable. I'm alarmed that he's doing it and then not striking off, though, and worry that he's going to learn to use it as an evasion when Mike's on him. Will discuss with the riding instructor tomorrow, assuming that the sleet forecast goes away and we actually have a lesson. Today, it's rather blustery out there: it was definitely one of those days when I wished that the speaker on my iPhone went up to eleven had another notch. Sheila Dillon on the Food Programme was ok just about ok, but Helen Mark on Open Country is very softly spoken, and I gave up after about ten minutes when the only thing I'd actually managed to take in was that someone had carved a statue out of local stone. In the time since we got back, it's got distinctly gloomy, so I would imagine that the rain will be here shortly. The boys, naturally, are not out, poor things. Now then, sweet peas. I planted some in the autumn, as Country Life told me that I'd get much better results if I did (I'm going to plant some more, possibly this afternoon, to compare), and they came up nicely and started sprawling over the table looking worryingly healthy. Then they stopped growing and just had a rest, but now they're going a bit pale and fragile looking: (Ignore the failed attempt at winter salad on down the side of the table: that was planted too late to be viable, I fear. It came up nicely and then immediately keeled over from lack of light.) I note that the most pathetic looking ones (and bits of ones: some have one tendril that's very perky and one that's all shrivelled) are both nearer to the closest window and furthest from what little sun they get. I'm assuming it's one or more of too cold, not enough sun, too much water, not enough water, needing feeding and being pot-bound*, but would anyone like to take a punt at which, so that I can try to perk them up, or at least stop the rest of them from going all sad? * I couldn't find the tall pots that you're supposed to use in the local garden centre. Mike's off in London, today, so I'm mostly hoping that nothing happens to disrupt his journey home (eg, tree across the High Speed lines, sink hole opening up on the other of the two nearby motorways). The rain's started, now, so I think that pooch and I will have a fire and stay close to home for the rest of the day. Link Who loves you?

Snowdrops ♥Feb. 10th, 2014 // 04:13 pm♥ [Tags | jodie the dog, pictures, riding:jonny ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/965533.html ] Aren't they pretty? (Have just informed Mike that it is now definitely time to change the lens cover on my camera for the good one!) (Mike has now changed my lens cover to the good one!) We hacked out, this morning, with me on the Baby to save Mike's back. We didn't want to go far (ditto), so we were a bit limited and it was rather muddy, which was a shame as the Baby was full of beans. Jodie had a tremendous time, though, although there was a random bit of barking at one point as we had a slow canter along the path: I think we were being asked to speed up so that she could have a proper run! (Pleased to say that, even though they rarely hear her bark, neither of the boys twitched when she did it.) After lunch, Jodie got shut up in the house while we went to Canterbury: Mike didn't trust me to navigate safely around the floods wanted to do a bit of shopping in Canterbury, so he came with me while I went and got waxed (another very nice girl, but Just Not Des. Also, about to go on maternity leave, so that's a non-starter). It was a bit of a magical mystery tour, particularly when Mike missed the turning, but we got there ok. The river's very high even in the middle of town, and the occasional river was very much in evidence. I do feel sorry for the people who live along it. Pooch was Terribly Excited when we got back, so I took her for a run in the hay field, which was Even More Exciting. She excelled herself on the bramble front: it was at least seven or eight feet long, before it snapped in half, and took some time to disentangle. When I told her she could get back up she excitedly span around on the spot and picked it back up again.... Link Who loves you?

Brrr ♥Feb. 8th, 2014 // 06:06 pm♥ [Tags | riding:jonny ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/964452.html ] I'm still feeling cold and blergy after yesterday. Hopefully I haven't actually got a bug or something. On the plus side, I've had a slightly bunged up ear for a week, and it is now intermittently popping clear, so maybe that will go away at least, and stop keeping me awake in the night with the noise. No picture, because Scrapbook isn't accepting it from the LJ app. On the other hand, there's nothing terribly exciting: just the boys standing in the school, post roll, wondering if it's time to go back inside yet. Mike wouldn't let me take the picture that I wanted to get. I declared that we really needed to empty the poo bucket by the school, on account of it only being half full with actual poo but overflowing with really hideous rainwater. Unfortunately, a good chunk of it ended up down Mike's front on the way to the compost bins. Well, his coat needed a wash anyway.... Mrs Next Door drove me to Canterbury this morning, to pick up the wheel nut thing. It was a bit exciting, as we had to keep going around flooded roads, but we got there (and back!) ok. I need to go into Canterbury myself on Monday, and the river isn't expected to go down much, so hopefully I'll be able to remember the route! In a sunny spell between hail showers this afternoon, we rode the boys. Mike started off on the Baby but, even though his back's better than it was, we swapped over. I was feeling too pathetic to do any proper schooling, particularly as I was having to hold him back hard when he was hopping around in an incredibly bad trot, so I said "if you want to canter, you bloody well can do" and ran him around in circles for a bit instead. The poor things are incredibly bored with being shut up inside so much, but the sunny spell lasted for long enough that they could even have a nice roll without their rugs on, getting all their itchy bits nicely scratched, which I'm sure that they appreciated. Oh, and Mike's built a small dam across the road, to try and divert the water away from our drive. It seems to be working, although I dare say it will wash away soon. TWWOTV had an actual good idea, that we just put a speed bump across the bottom of the drive. I think that might be a winning solution. She also related the fact that, in 2001, the water came half way up our front garden, so I suppose it could be worse! Link Who loves you?

Rain, rain, go away... ♥Feb. 6th, 2014 // 04:40 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, house, jodie the dog, neighbours, pictures, riding:jonny, weather, weaving ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/962770.html ] ... please? It started raining at about 11am, and it's just not stopped since. Mike's Device Of Weather Measuring says that we've had 10mm. There's more than 10mm of water in the pond at the end of our drive (I just took floated the wheely bins out, and I had to hold the bottom of my coat up out of the water. Admittedly, it's a long coat, but still), but then there is a small stream running down the hill, again. It's spread out into the stableyard, again but bigger, and has now emerged in the front garden as well: lovely. The dining room roof is leaking again, to. I say 'again', but maybe it's 'still': it was only when Mike noticed the drips and mentioned it that I realised that, actually, the floor there has been a bit wet for a few days. I'm afraid I'd been mentally blaming it on the pooch. Must (get Mike to) chase up the roofing guy. At least it's a fairly slow leak, although I think it is getting worse. Edit: yup, it is. Sigh. Jodie and I went out for a soggy walk in the woods, although it is actually getting less muddy in places: there's been so much rain that the mud's been washed away, and dips that were muddy a few weeks ago not just have fairly clear puddles of water in them. We saw Mrs Farmer while we were out, which gave me a chance to find out the back-story to the somewhat incoherent email I had from The People Up The Hill this morning ("Some sheep got let out the night before last. The Police say to make sure that you keep everything locked up, so please shut the gate at the top of the hill." None of these statements leads to the other by any logical process...). There's a house up at the top of the hill that has just been bought by (as it happens) Jodie's vets, and they've been having lots of work done putting in a stableyard for their ponies and housing for their sheep. It looks as though someone was checking it out to see how easy it would be to nick (eg) the tack, and so drove into a convenient field to have a look over the fence. They didn't close the gate on their way out, so off the sheep wandered. (How easy would it be to nick the tack? Mrs Farmer rang the vet to let them know what had happened. "Oh, god," said Mrs Vet, "My tack isn't locked up!" Tsk.) Anyway, Jodie liked her run, and she ate her entire (belated: it was about 2pm) breakfast when she got back! Plus, she left Squeaky Ball in the field for the whole day. This is definitely an improvement, although we'll see how much dinner she manages this evening. The boys have, not surprisingly, been in again, much to the Baby's disgust (GB doesn't mind too much, although he's much happier when there's a nice steady supply of food for him to occupy himself with). We did manage to ride this morning, before the rain started: Mike's back is still bothering him, so I got evicted from the comfy horse after about five minutes and had to fight the Baby instead. I did get a couple of nice canters out of him, though, so it's not all bad. We're having a fire tonight, for the first time in a while: it's not that it's cold (the Aga's still off--Tuesday, we hope--so the heating's been on a lot more lately) but it's bloody dreary. We have a different brand of firelighters, and I was going to say "Why on earth would you put each firelighter in an individually sealed plastic bag?" until I opened it and realised how much they stink. I wish I could remember where we got those lovely compressed paper ones that we had when we first moved in: they didn't smell at all, and I think they were actually better than the chemical ones. They came in a red box, and that's about all I can remember. (Hmm. I did think "I'll try Google!" but all I'm getting is pages telling me how to make my own. Sigh.) Over the last week, I've been pootling away on a little project, which is now finished: (Hmm: poor light, but this lens cover is definitely on the way out, isn't it?) It was a bit experimental; learning points include that it's tricky to keep the spacing on the warp threads even when they're not held in place, and that I should have tied the frame properly together before I started, rather than half way through when I realised that the sticks were moving slightly and making tension on the warp threads go a bit funny. And the bunny might be a bit *too* well camouflaged. I think I'm quite pleased with it, though! Link Who loves you?

Organisation ♥Jan. 21st, 2014 // 04:39 pm♥ [Tags | email, house, pictures, riding:jonny ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/952258.html ] This morning, it was bright but misty. The house looked quite pretty, as we came back from our hack: We timed it well, as the Parcel Force guy came driving along just after I took that, so I told him we'd be there in a minute and he went on ahead and unloaded the Ikea delivery while we caught him up. I foolishly forgot that I was on the Baby, not GB, when I went to sign for the delivery: GB would have just stood there glaring at him, but the Baby stood still for long enough to establish that there were no treats available and then tried to walk off back to the stables. Sigh. As well as new shelves for the back store room, the order included a shelf unit that I'd bought to try and tidy my desk. When we moved in, we both just threw the contents of our desks into the study, and they've rather just sat there, acquiring new layers of stuff on top of the stuff we brought with us. I also appropriated the old Billy corner unit, and stacked that full of stuff as well: I had a nasty moment when I first tried to put the shelves on top of my desk and couldn't get them to fit (I did, I *did* measure the gap! Are the walls not square??), but then I realised that I'd put the little hanging hooks on the side, and they were making it *just* too wide for the gap. Everything's now all lovely and organised, and two spare shelves in the Billy for new junk Mike to use: I suppose that I've now got no excuse for not getting on and doing something more creative than making blankets.... In Thunderbird news, having left it entirely alone overnight to get everything downloaded it has now stopped freezing whenever I ask it to do anything. My only complaint is that it doesn't reliably tell me about unread email outside the inbox unless I manually tell it to Get Mail, which is a little annoying. That, and I can't figure out a way to get it to give me the unread count on folders other than the inbox. I used to have a lovely little jobbie called Mail Unread Menu, that gave me a count of selected folders in the menu bar. I'm sure that there is an add on to do it, but all the ones I've found are either Not Available For My Platform or say things like "Maintains a file in the profile root directory with counts for unread messages per account. Useful for display in generic status bar, e.g.: taffybar, xmobar, dzen2, etc", and I have no idea what to do with that. Link Who loves you?

It's all gone a bit biblical.... ♥Oct. 3rd, 2013 // 07:18 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, food, jodie the dog, riding:jonny ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/911989.html ] About forty minutes ago, I went to give the boys their haynets and thought "that's a lot of lightning". The pooch fled back to the house in terror, and when I got back I called Mike outside to admire it, with a brief interlude of power cut in between. It was 15C, at 9:45pm in October. We live in a frost hollow: we had our first ground frost about two weeks ago (admittedly, it's bee the only one to date, but I suspect that's mostly because it's kept away by the mist that rolls down the valley most nights). About thirty minutes, and a couple more power cuts, ago, the rain started. The pooch lay quivering on the carpet: we closed the curtains, and became suddenly grateful for the fact that there are unlikely to be big firework displays nearby. I checked the boys, and found them to be slightly stressed. About ten minutes ago, it started to die down and I went for another look at the boys. Their beds will be horrible in the morning, but I don't think they're going to do themselves any harm. I was pretty sure GB would be ok, but worried about the baby, who is anyway unused to being in a stable. Pooch is currently lying between my end of the sofa and the window, where she never usually lies (not enough room plus wishing to not be in the way). I'm intermittently typing left-handed, which is sub-optimal, as she goes through waves of stress when she needs my hand on her head in order to stop shaking. I suspect I'm not going to be getting her to come outside for her late-night wee tonight. In other news, we have been Foraging, on the local common: a couple of bags of apples, most now juiced and the rest (pronounced by Mike to be Russet-ish) to be crumbled along with a bag of blackberries. We also found a few elderberries, so I've made a couple of small bottles of juice from them: doesn't taste hugely, but is quite pleasant nonetheless. We could have got more, but Mike's patience for foraging is limited, which is why I usually leave him at home when I go out for blackberries. I was glad we did go, though, as when I went and inspected our trees later I managed a grand total of half a dozen apples, which isn't worth getting the steamer out for: the trees are a bit old and sad, and efficiency probably requires that they come out some time soon. And be re-planted in such a way that you can get at the back of them without climbing through a shrubbery. (We have lots of sloes, though. I tried a couple on the common, and they were very close to ripe. Ours aren't yet, though. Will be soon. Gin is waiting.) Yesterday, a not-really-a-neighbour turned up at the front door. I suppose that she technically counts as a neighbour, in that she lives in the first house that you come to if you follow a particular route away from ours, but it's a good mile or more away. Anyway, she had (by osmosis, presumably) become aware that New People were living here, and that they Had Horses, and so had very kindly come to let us know that the Hunt were meeting this morning on one side of the valley and on Saturday afternoon on the other. I thought I'd play it safe, and we kept the boys in this morning (I think GB would be fine, but I'm fairly certain that the Baby has been hunted in the last few years in Ireland. This assumption on my part probably means that, in reality, the Baby would ignore it completely while watching GB leap over the double fence and head off into the sunset). I filled the time when we'd normally ride (and when Mike had a nap) by poo picking the field, and heard not a single sign of them, which is a little unfortunate as we were planning on going out on Saturday if they'd been ok, but now we don't know. Being a Nice Person, I let Next Door know about the hunt and then, being a Good Neighbour, I also called the WWOtV. "Oh, yes," she said, "I've known for a couple of weeks. They always call to let me know, in case they stray onto my land." It would, Next Door and I mused, have been nice if she'd troubled herself to let the rest of us know. Note to self: get in touch with the Hunt and ask them to call me.... Phew: pooch has calmed down, there's been no more thunder for a bit, and the rain even seems to have passed off. Link 4 kisses // Who loves you?

Yay! ♥Sep. 15th, 2013 // 11:25 am♥ [Tags | jodie the dog, riding:jonny ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/910785.html ] Another good night, so I think we've cracked it. We also left Jodie alone in the house for the first time, while we went out for a short hack. She'd obviously been around all the exterior doors, trying to see where we'd got to, but no scrabbling and, when we got back, she was just sitting nicely with her nose pressed against the conservatory door watching until I let her out, so I think she'd just been lying on the living room carpet waiting for us. She is much better about letting us out of her sight now, which is very good. (I even had a moment of worry while we were mucking out: she was nowhere to be seen, but then I realised she'd gone up to the field to sit in the shade.) She has a new Best Thing Ever, which is coming outside with me at dusk and waiting to be let into the field, at which point she shoots off like a rocket (again, letting me out of sight!). I assume that she's chasing bunnies, but whatever it is she comes back terribly excited and does another of her Best Things Ever: drinking half the fish pond. The Baby is amusing me, too: he's a bit constrained by only having GB to play with (to be fair to GB, he does sort of try to join in, but it's more of a half-heated trot when Jonny's bucking his way across the field!), and he seems to have decided that Jodie was a good prospect when he saw her running around. So he's started chasing her. She's not really very sure about this, and usually comes to hide behind me when he does it but she is getting less timid around the boys, so maybe they'll be able to play tag together. Off for anniversary lunch, now, and a walk in the woods. Link 6 kisses // Who loves you?

Other things ♥Sep. 2nd, 2013 // 09:12 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, riding:jonny ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/907318.html ] We did do other things as well, today. Some of them were horse-related. This morning, Mike feeling a bit stiff from a long hack yesterday, I took both of the boys in the school. vgrumpybastard obviously agreed with Mike about yesterday's hack, because he was very blerg, particularly in the canter, so I didn't keep him out there for long. However, we did manage some lovely leg yields: Mike and I had a try-out lesson with a possible new instructor on Friday; we didn't particularly like her (Mike in general, me for the fact that she encouraged Mike to neck-rein and is of the 'make your stirrups longer! Longer!' school of thought), and almost certainly won't carry on with her, but she did give me a couple of really good tips for my leg yield, so much so that GB is now barely travelling forwards when we do it. After I'd given up on getting much out of GB, I went and got the baby, much to GB's annoyance: I didn't want to risk turning him out in reduced space (see below), so I left him in his box, where he spent the time we were away sweating and yelling. In retrospect, I probably should have turned him out so that he could at least see us, but he does have to learn. Anyway, the baby did very well: he's developed a nasty habit of rebalancing himself in trot by doing annoying little bunny hops, but he barely did any today and we got some fairly creditable circles, too, with much concentration-grunting to accompany them. I *was* going to finish up after he did a couple of nice, slower than usual canters, but then he stopped dead by the gate and said "finished now", so instead I walked him up and down past the gate for five minutes, then through it and back into the school, until he stopped anticipating. GB's nose, incidentally, is much better looking: the swelling's all gone, and it's now all nicely scabbed over and black again. I'm due a phone call with the vet tomorrow, but I think we're going to call it fixed. If she's still worried, I'll get a cheap visit on Thursday, but it's not worth a full callout fee, I think. I'll check with the vet tomorrow but I think I might even be able to take off the silly hat that he's been wearing all week. Or maybe I'll leave it a few more days to make sure he can't scratch it back open again..... The reason that I couldn't let GB go out in the field to come and stand by the arena is that we're finally getting out fencing done (did I say that already? I forget!): we've had a crack team of eastern europeans in at 7am every day since Saturday, and they're certainly getting through it. The boys are having to be confined with electric tape into a small bit in the middle of the old bottom field, but hopefully soon we'll be able to extend the area: there are a couple of the removed old fence posts that need a touch more removal, annoyingly right in the middle of the field, and then we can do a very careful check for bits of wire and such and then let them roam around. Link Who loves you?

Bloody animals! ♥Aug. 29th, 2013 // 03:51 pm♥ [Tags | angelo, riding:jonny ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/906684.html ] So, GB's vet visit was not much shy of £200. I really hope that it clears up before he needs to have any more expensive treatment! It does seem better. The silly hat makes it much harder for him to itch it raw, so it's only bleeding a bit, and I think that the swelling has gone down, but it's hard to get a proper look as whenever I take the silly hat off he starts trying to rub his face against the nearest convenient object. Sigh. He even seems to be eating most of the medication, although I do sometimes have to mix the last of it up with a bit of water and some crumbled up treats to get him to finish it: he's remarkably good at eating the food and leaving the powder behind. Today, Mike's gone into town. As GB's been a bit sluggish the last few days (well, you know, big infection plus antibiotics....), I popped him out into the field and took the baby for a hack, as he needs more fast riding than he's getting. GB was unimpressed, to put it mildly. (At least) until we were out of sight, he was cantering from one end (can see the stables) of the field to the other (can see arena and a horse-and-rider in the distance that may or may not be us) trying to figure out where we'd gone. I could still hear him yelling as we got to the end of our road and turned into the woods, and I think I may have heard one or two neighs while we were in the woods. The mares next door and the Gelding Over The Road were all a bit bemused about what all the fuss was about. On the plus side, he wasn't in a state when we got back, and he only started yelling again when we got to the arena and he was sure it was us (although he'd been keeping an eye on us from a little way before that). I got him in before I put the baby out, for the dual purposes of checking he hadn't sweated up and stopping him from going after the baby, and got good results on both counts. The baby did very well on our little hack, although he make 'let's go home' motions every time GB shouted at him. In the woods, he was very good, and we had some nice canters and some typically bouncy trots. He will keep trying to trot down steep hills though, which is annoying and silly of him. (He's also much better at trotting in one direction around the school than he is in the other. Amusingly, when I trotted him down the lane he trying to move across the road so that the high verge was closes to him on the side it would be on his favoured rein in the school....) He was even very good when two random dogs appeared in the middle of the bridlepath and ran towards us as we cantered up it. I was rather irritated, and when I later saw a woman with half a dozen dogs asked if it had been hers that we'd nearly splatted. "Oh, it probably was them but they're used to horses," she said, not seeming to realise that neither I nor the horse were to magically know that, and her dogs probably also didn't magically know that the horse was ok with them. Plus, I'm fairly sure there are rules about dogs being under close control on bridlepaths: I'm not saying for a moment that they have to be on a lead, but if they're far enough away that the human doesn't hear me yell "Horse! Recall your dogs!" then I can't imagine that that counts. Grr. Mutter. Link 1 kiss // Who loves you?

It didn't do that when I tried it.... ♥Jun. 11th, 2013 // 02:54 pm♥ [Tags | riding:jonny ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/901997.html ] This morning, after Pilates and half an hour of laterals with GB, I took Mike's horse for a little hack in the woods, the first time I'd tried it. I went with the girl next door (well, the girl with the horse in the stable next to GB's), and she was pleasantly surprised not to have to keep stopping to let us catch up as we walked up the lane (which she has to do with GB). As we got to the first place where people have a canter, I was just telling her how Mike had warned me that Jonny was tough to get into canter at the start of the ride, and I'd brought a long whip just in case I struggled. Jonny's nose was fractionally in front of the other horse's as I gave him a nice clear-but-gentle go signal, planning to follow it up with a big kick and then a tap of the whip when he didn't go. "I thought you said canter, not gallop?" asked the girl next door when she caught up. (I am, however, delighted to report that he has fabulous brakes: a tiny squeeze with the hands brought him back to a nice canter, and a barely-larger one stopped him when I asked.) Link 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?

Busy week! ♥Apr. 21st, 2013 // 03:30 pm♥ [Tags | food, going out, horses, house, riding:jonny ] [ xpost | http://flickgc.livejournal.com/900049.html ] Mike's back at work tomorrow, I'm almost relieved.... We went back to see the horse on Wednesday, and he did pretty well in a sand school given his age and experience (he'd been in one for probably the first time that morning, as they wanted to make sure that it didn't freak him out, and when I did a circle on him the dealer said "that's probably the first time he's done that!"). He's a bit wobbly on changes of direction, but only for a couple of steps before he sorts himself out, and it takes him a little while to settle into a trot or canter but it's pretty good once he does. Mike was back down to Gatwick on Thursday, as there happened to be another horse being vetted that morning and we piggy-backed on the visit: passed with a clean bill of health, so Mike now has a horse of his own! As he's been living in a field all winter, we thought it was worth asking at my yard to see if he could just go in with the field ponies there (they're phasing them out as stables come free but, on current knowledge, the next free stable will be GB's) and got told that he could, so he'll be arriving on Monday week. The field ponies are on the same bit of the field rota as GB, which is good as they'll get to know each other a bit and, if we're really lucky, actually make friends before we move. He'll have a bit of a hectic day, as he'll be going in a box, driving around the M25, arriving at a new home, getting his shoes and saddle done and getting the grooming of his life, but hopefully he'll be ok with it. We might even be able to teach him what a carrot's for! While Mike was doing that, I was at work, and in the evening it was out office warming party, which featured a band with an average age of about fifteen and lots and lots of PR people and clients who I didn't really know: I was quite glad Mike made it along to keep me company! On Friday morning, we headed out to the new house and had a bit of a chat to the owner (they're still slightly hopeful about a house they offered for on Scotland, but she was also going to look at three places to rent that afternoon) and then spent some time with a guy from a company that does equestrian work, looking over what needs doing on the horsey bits of the property. He was pleased with the stables, unimpressed with the fence posts and terribly impressed with the sand school, the one thing he didn't really think needed any work. I was a little concerned that the rabbits who've been digging holes in the school has damaged the membrane layer under the sand, which would be a huge job, but he thinks we're safe from that. Being unimpressed with the fencing was almost a blessing: we had thought that we'd re-use the existing fence posts if they were in god condition, but as we're having to replace them any way it means we can change the orientation of the fence dividing the two paddocks, which will make the layout much better. We headed over to Bexley after that, where Mike rode and I told people about the new horse, as I was feeling too knackered to ride especially as I was out that evening. I went to Gauthier, which I love, with Erik. We had the eight-course tasting menu, which was fabulous but rather long: we sat down at 7pm and, just as I was about to suggest one last glass of wine before we left, suddenly it was 11pm.... Saturday morning I did ride: we went out in the woods, where it was lovely and sunny and hardly muddy at all, which was a welcome change. In the evening, we went to a party at Dr Johnson's house, for a friend's birthday, where there were an array of gorgeous jellies, including some shaped like St Paul's Cathedral. There wasn't actually much other food, though, so we had a quick dinner in Taz before coming home. Today has been very much a day for sitting on the sofa, doing more bits of new house planning and listening to the marathon go past. I needed a quiet day! Link 2 kisses // Who loves you?

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