Hats Off

I do not go outside now unless I am wearing thermal leggings. They go under jods or my jogging bottoms. The jogging bottoms are four pounds each from Quality Seconds, and are perfect for days when I only muck out and don't get to ride. I can wipe my hands on them and not care. I have to wear a thermal vest. Then a polo neck, then a sweatshirt, then a jacket. Soon there will be a waistcoat under the jacket. By February I will have a minimum of six layers on, and struggle to get on my horse (and struggle even more to get off).
But my trademark, as always, is my hat. For some reason I cannot find a sensible hat. So in desperation I am wearing a pink pom pom hat, with tassels. Why? I am forty-two. I look like a frozen Scandanavian pixie. In fact, what I really look like is the suicidal mother in About A Boy. No wonder she felt suicidal, walking around in a hat like that. They looked good in the market stall, where there is no mirror. This is not a coincidence. If you could see what you looked like before you bought it, the crafty stall holder would never make any money.
But now we have managed to go one step further than this. We have bought those fluffy trappers hats. I already have one of these, and the only reason I can get away with it is that it has 'Joules' on it in large writing on the back. Horsey people are so blinded by the word 'Joules' that they fail to notice I look a complete and total prat in it.
But this new trappers hat is khaki, and has fur in all the right places. In fact, you don't notice until you wear it, but they've added two extra flaps of fur, totally unnecessarily, one on each side of your head, that look like little ears, so you end up having a distinct resemblance to Deputy Dawg. Not a good look. I don't normally wear these hats anywhere except on the farm, but as it's so unspeakably cold, I wore one yesterday to town in desperation. This was fine until we stopped in the car at the traffic lights, and people crossing the road kept bumping into each other as they were staring through the windscreen at me as if they couldn't believe their eyes.
Mr O turned Barnaby out this morning, who reared up, turned round, and ran back out of the field. Mr O managed to catch him down by the white gate at the end of the drive, and put him back in the field, closing the gate properly this time, before undoing Barnaby's head collar. I led Max out and he stuck his nose in the snow and snorted it (it is white powder, after all!) The next thing I know, his knees had buckled and he went down for a roll, right there, on the yard! He was laying there, making snow angels, legs in the air. Then he stood up and shook himself and went off to the field as if nothing unusual had happened. The three horses went careering round in the snow, being very silly, rearing up at each other and cantering off.
It has snowed all day, but the electricians still turned up to finish off installing the lights in both barns. I am amazed. We made them cups of tea to keep them going. We mucked out and did all the chores, then got the horses back in by 11.30. They are coming in earlier and earlier each day, but there's no way I'm going to be able to keep Barnaby in all day. We had to pick their feet out as they were filled with rock solid ice. The electricians had to switch power off in our house while they made adjustments to the board outside, so we sat here freezing to death.
We have been to see Avatar. It is extremely good. We didn't see the 3D version, but even the normal one was excellent. It is obviously a take on the Amazon Rainforest, and the ore they go to mine is called 'unobtanium' which I thought was hysterical, but apart from that it was very enjoyable, and sucked you into the story, as the script is a bit weak at the beginning. It was very 'circle of life' but I guess that's all part of that culture. The graphics are stunning. I would definitely watch it again. A guy called Sam Worthington is the star, and I've got to be honest, I've never heard of him. He looked like a slightly chubby Ben Afleck. It turns out he's in Terminator Salvation, which we'll be watching over Christmas, and he's Australian. Interesting.
So this afternoon has been about finishing my second cross stitch, which I am very pleased with. It says it is an Anniversary Pig, so you could put whatever number you wanted on it, but I have decided to use it on a card for Caelan's first birthday, so I have put a 'one' on it.



We have been to drop off the family's Christmas cards. Lisa has given me a lap light, which is brilliant, it made it much easier to see the holes in the fabric. She says I am not to do it too late at night as it's very bad for your eyes. She's not kidding. She's also lent me two books on cross stitch that are absolutely brilliant. I am dying to go back to the craft shop and buy loads of stuff now. There are so many things I could be doing.
I'd better go now to make the jelly for the trifle for the party tomorrow night. I spoke to Lorayne and she said all her friends are making Black Forest Trifle. You just put chocolate swiss roll in a dish, pour on cherry pie filling, top with chocolate custard and put cream on top, so I am going to make that as well.
And what is so sad, is that I have brought Max's stable rug in to warm in front of the fire so that's it's warm and dry before I put it on him at night. It's like warming your child's towel on the fire while he's in the bath. Too much?