Randoms

I have been having trouble looking Eeyore in the face, which is difficult because I usually drink out of this:




and lurking at the top of the stairs lives:



The reason being, that he bears a striking resemblance to:


I realise I haven't mentioned Max since he went, because it's been quite heart wrenching, but tonight I took his name plate off his stable door and put it away. I have moved on. Mr O has, too, and has said he is able to transfer his allegience from Barnaby to Zak. This is wonderful for me, too.


And now... introducing the Beverley Sisters!


How cute are these little darlings?


At the moment they are Abigail, Jemima and Max, although I am convinced they are all girls (how do you tell?) and that Max is soon to become Maxine.

They have moved into an outside pen, where we can keep the heater on in their little house, but they come out for a run round, which they really enjoy.






I am very attatched to them. They run to me and peck me. One of them was pecking my engagement ring. It doesn't hurt at all.




When they run round they are like little clockwork toys. So sweet. I am smitten.




We had a bit of a disaster in the garden on Sunday while we were fence judging as it was so windy at home our little portable greenhouse toppled over, spilling my cucumber plants everywhere. I am not a happy bunny. I doubt they'll recover now.
But I think my lettuces are ready for picking. I declare them a success and will definitely grow some more next year.




I have also finally been up to the top of the field and picked the rhubarb. I got stung by stinging nettles, as I hacked my way through. Guess who is going to spend tomorrow chopping and freezing rhubarb like it's going out of fashion?



And finally, I have mentioned that when Mr O owned Barnaby he was always clean and Max was always filthy. Since I've owned Barnaby he has decided it's his turn to be dirty. I think this photo speaks for itself really. It's a good job I love him.

Phew!

I have had a hectic few days. Son 1 came yesterday and stayed the night, so I have made use of the extra manpower to get some outside jobs done. It took us nearly two hours to weed the patio and tidy the garden. You may be wondering why I have weeds on my patio, and to be honest, I am a little baffled myself. I think I will have to resort to weedkiller to stay ahead of the game. The wheelbarrow was full by the time we finished.
I didn't tell you, did I, that the chickens and I aren't currently on speakers? This is because they came in to my garden a couple of weeks ago (we hadn't had George very long by then) and trashed my containers. I came in one afternoon, looked down, and realised to my horror that my busy lizzies were missing. There were lots of little green stems scattered about on the ground. One of my containers was bare - no busy lizzies, no loebelias. I was devastated. All that hard work for nothing. So now the gate is kept closed and the chickens can't get in. I know they stand in my containers, otherwise they wouldn't be able to do this, would they?






Our fruit trees have finally arrived. They are a month late, but never mind. On Monday night we drove to B&Q to buy some huge containers to plant them in. We have 2 eating apples and 1 cooking apple, 2 plum, 1 pear tree, 2 cherry trees and 1 apricot. The irony is that the farm used to be a fruit farm years ago, so it's come full circle really. They will stay in the tubs until the garden is finished. While we were there I decided to buy a couple of geraniums, as that's all they had left, so I've planted them this morning in order to replace the (years) plants the locusts have eaten.
Apart from that, between us we have blitzed the stables today. I have mucked out Zak's stable, put all the spare straw from Max's stable into Zak's, totally swept Max's stable and put our big boxes in there. This leaves the space clear outside, so I can sweep up properly. I still haven't finished really.
I rode Barnaby yesterday and today. We went for a fabulous hack yesterday, around a local place called The Manor where there is a decent bridleway. This is very close to where Max bolted with me and I haven't had the nerve to ride there on my own since. I was a bit nervous, but Barnaby was fine. I had to get off at one gate, with a little Jack Russell who appeared from nowhere (JR's can do that) and barked her head off. Barnaby didn't seem too bothered, thank goodness. He seemed to have so much energy I felt he could have done 10 miles and not been bothered.
Today I've schooled him and it was quite hard work. He isn't as supple as Max was (for all his faults) and struggles to bend on a circle any less than twenty metres. If I ask him to bend to the left he immediately sticks his neck out to the right, as if he's staring out to sea. In the end I got off him, got a mint out of my pocket and offered it to him right next to his shoulder and he immediately turned his head right round and ate it! Hmmm. We have some work to do there I think.
I've also taught Seven on Monday night and Ten tonight. They have both improved dramatically. Ten keeps on deliberately asking Fudge to canter, so I've told him off a bit this evening and said he must not canter unless I've asked him to. Why is it when boys learn to ride they all turn into speed demons by the fifth lesson? Son 2 was just the same.

And I have made some cards, too. I am very pleased with these.





It was making these that made me realise it was time to buy a craft knife. There is no way I could have cut them out properly without one.


Some of the card ideas in Papercraft Inspirations magazine suggest you use quite an unusual sized card, but they don't tell you what you're supposed to do about an envelope, so I adapt where I can to standard card stock that I've already got. These were a lot of fun to make, though. I still prefer to use foam pads for decoupage, but have learned the value of silicone glue, especially on some of these as the little dog's nose is decoupaged, so you can imagine how tiny the nose is once you've cut it out. You'd never find a foam pad small enough.




I have realised the difference between home-made cards and shop bought ones is that home-made cards make you want to touch them. When I gave Ten his birthday card, he touched and pressed every single bit of it. With shop bought cards you read them and put them up and that's it. There is something very tactile about a home-made card.
And finally, I've bought all the ingredients for the lemon curd, so hopefully I'll be able to make it tomorrow. I've been reading up about sterilizing jars, so I'm all ready to go. You know what they say, if life gives you lemons...

Post script: Immediately after writing this I googled 'making your own envelopes' and found a brilliant 'how-to' video, so that solves that problem.

Disappointed!

Well, it's a little bit frustrating. A company called Maple Arenas have been booked to put a manege in for us. This is a big (40mx20m) rectangular area with a fence round it, that will have a special sand surface with rubber on the top, that we can ride the horses in to do their 'schooling'.

Now in order to put the manege in, the field in front of it has to be drained, which involves digging lots of it up, to put pipes in that will drain the water away. Maple Arenas can do that. They can also landscape the whole area, as we are keeping the pond at the road end. All the soil they dig up will be transported to make a bigger garden for us. The post and rail fencing has to be moved eight metres further into the field to leave a space big enough for the manege. The company will do all of that. They will also put in a roadway down to the second gate, and some other guys are coming to restructure the entrance so that we can get in and out with the lorry.

A guy came on Thursday and said work would commence on Monday (ie, yesterday) and to get the stone ordered for the roadway, which Pongo did. Missis and I did our thing yesterday, and waited and waited, and nobody came. In the end Missis rang up and spoke to someone else, who said, "I do the scheduling, and you're not down 'til Thursday."

Disappointed!

And Travis Perkins were due to deliver some concrete pipe today, and that hasn't come, either! Honestly, workmen, eh? It's nearly six o'clock, so it's not likely to turn up now, is it?

Missis and I are so excited about everything being done, it's such a let-down. It had better come soon, that's all I can say...

I had a very nice afternoon yesterday, putting lots of my plants into their new homes. I have two big stone pots near the back door, that both contained a very nice cordyline australis, but both have snuffed it over the winter. RIP little plants. I have been ruthless and pulled them out and replaced them with the busy lizzies and the lobelia (I am struggling to decide whether busy lizzie should begin with capital letters, but then I feel sorry for lobelia, which doesn't, as I'm sure it will work just as hard, but doesn't deserve a capital letter, for some reason. It's not fair, is it?) It will all be pink and lilac one day, which will be lovely.

I have thrown away the opened grow-bag that the cats have used as a litter tray over the winter, bless 'em. I don't think I'll be discussing that any further, in case you're eating while you read this.

I got carried away and dug loads of moss out of the cracks in the stone work, pulled lots of weeds out and swept up loads of leaves and general garden debris. I am very pleased with the result, and my teeny-tiny greenhouse looks very smart. There will be a competition between the cucumbers and the courgettes now, I can see. The courgettes have a smug air about them.

I have ridden Barnaby today, and he was extremely good. I rode him in a double bridle for the first time. It strikes me that if you ride Western, you might not have seen one, and I meant to take a photo of him in it, so you can see. Basically, it has two bits and two reins. This picture of Max will have to suffice.

The knack is in knowing how to hold the reins, and Barnaby's are a lot thicker than Max's. One of the reins is plaited, too. Our saga is that we are going to a show on Sunday and at the moment, Barnaby has a black double bride and a brown saddle. This is because his black saddle is now on Zak (it's adjustable). We have ordered a brown bridle, but if it doesn't come in time I don't know what we're going to do. I tried Max's (black) saddle on him today, but it's too small. I don't want to risk riding him in it even for one class, in case it hurts him.

Normally I ride Barnaby and Max in a martingale. It helps to keep their head down, but also means you get a leather strap around their neck and chest, which is useful for getting on the horse. When you have a double bridle, there is no neck strap, plus, of course, Barnaby doesn't have a mane (we shave it off, or 'hog' him) so I felt a bit peculiar when I got on him, but he was wonderful in the bridle, very responsive.

I took him down to the school, and he worked very well. The idea is that the horse uses their powerful back end to propel them along, and they work 'up into the bridle', which gives them the lovely shape you see, when the horse's neck is arched. This is known as 'coming on the bit.' It makes them look like a chess piece. Barnaby did it very quickly and felt beautifully light in my hands, not leaning on me like I said last week. His cantering is a bit 'rough' but we can work on that. We had a beautiful canter on the way home again. I am loving this horse more and more each time I ride him. I think we'll go for a hack tomorrow...