Notes from Summer Wood...

Then there is the painting. I'm not sure that there is much I can say about painting, especially painting in magnolia in a House Doctor style attempt to neutralize and depersonalise the house. Apart from one "feature wall" which I have done in a nice soft green.

I don't find it a personal house anyway, in fact I find it pretty soul-less. I'm a cottage girl, I'm beams and nooks and crannies, low ceilings and lower doors, not a straight wall in the place and sloping floors that make you feel drunk, wood-burners, mullioned windows, countryside, scrubbed pine and patchwork quilts, cottage gardens with veg growing between the flowers, tile floors and bread in the oven...
So a 1980s semi (especially a 4 bedroom one! which is way too big for just MrP and me) on a nice enough estate with a neat lawned garden, double glazing and modern fittings is my idea of hell- sorry if it's your idea of heaven I'm just talking about me and I'm a bit strange... but this is what we have to work with and it needs to be sold so that we can move to our happily ever after cottage in the country- and PDQ too! The vendor won't keep it off the market forever for us.

So I am sorry I am quiet and not getting back to as many people as I would like but there are walls that need magnolia-ing

Normal service will be resumed ASAP
Oh and there is no news, as of this morning, from bulging Poppy- the foal is officially due today though so watch this space...

Just so no-one is offended if I don't get back to them... this weekend is the move proper so once turned off and moved tonight I am computerless until BT get around to re-broadbanding me (they said anytime up to midnight Tuesday- so most likely to be 10 to 12 Tuesday...)

Have a good weekend all- not too many sausages on the barbeque and put your factor 100 on it's going to be a hot one! (Ooooohhh look I've gone all Rob Thomas now and started humming Smooth... go Carlos play your guitar...)

I'll be back next week if we are spared!

Thank you so much Amy for my award- I will polish it daily I promise.



Okay I said that I wasn't going to do this until I had moved but I really need another coffee to kick start me this morning so here we go
 
10 things about me...
 
1. I ride horses
2. My 2 little section A welsh ponies are expecting foals soon
3. I love mashed potato sandwiches- yum!
4. I love watching the dawn break somewhere beautiful
 
5. I got married on Valentines Day - how romantic is that?!?
6. When I worked I was a computer analyst but now have no idea how they work...
7. My real passion is baking
8. I would love to write a book
9. My vocal cords are paralysed and have been cut at the back to allow me to breathe so people always think I have a really sore throat
10. I'm dreading moving back to the old house
 
5 things I don't like...
 
1 Moths!!!!!!!!
2 Avocados
3 Mowing the lawn
4 Ironing
5 Moving house
 
Passing this award onto Karen (The English Writer), Pebbledash, Driftwood, Dragonfly, Suie Juantit, Miss Pickering, The Hound, Poppy Cottage, Heart of Devon and Indigo Shirl
who else can't wait to hear the hound's likes and dislikes...?

This week we have the keys back to the old house- we have given ourselves 2 weeks to move stuff back there- we hadn't counted on MrP being soooooo busy at work that it looks like with the exception of the huge stuff like dressers and sofas I'm a one girl removal team. I started yesterday with plants (my little tomato seedlings so needed the sunlight of the greenhouse instead of the half light of a barn conversion windowsill)

The out-going tenant looks like lawn mowing wasn't her forté (I'm estimating 12 inches long) - or weeding- or watering (and yes that is a dead fish at the side of the pond but MrP will have to move that!! The pond deck is raised by about 6 inches by the way and the right hand photo is what used to be my beloved veg garden!!) or keeping greasy kiddy fingers off walls - it's no wonder it's not selling!! I have my work cut out over the next few weeks to get it back to where it was... oh well it keeps me out of mischief I guess!

On a brighter note we had a glorious weekend (well after MrP had finished work on Saturday afternoon we had a glorious weekend) I had popped into Tesco on my way back from getting horse and chicken food and there was my favourite wine (normally about £9 a bottle) as part of their finest meal deal (2 eat in for £9) so basically you buy a bottle of wine and get a free meal- so I did! I don't normally do ready meals as I love cooking but this was lovely and it felt like a night off. We also took the dogs for a walk in the woods near the cottage- bluebells are so beautiful aren't they?  I managed to pick some wild garlic too, so when I get 5 minutes I can make some wild garlic and walnut pesto...

We had tea on the hoof last night as Poppy had us all in a spin!

I had to go and get my new specs yesterday, the time I'm afraid has come to admit that my arms are no longer long enough to read menus in restaurants, or letters, or maps and that squinting to see the computer screen with my eyes screwed up and my mouth open is not an attractive look... It was quite a shock though to find that I'm not only long sighted but short sighted too, how does that work? So basically I'm blind?!?! I need some for reading and close work, well I had gathered that, and another pair for driving (I'm still within the legal limits without but...) and watching tv. So I went to pick them up and invested in a new teapot at the same time (no, not from the optitions, just while I was in town.)

I promise my posts are not all going to be horsey from now on but just wanted to share my feelings at the moment. I didn't realise how much the face thing (I had a wrong time wrong place accident with the boys just before Christmas that resulted in 36 stitches and an operation on my face) and recent events had knocked my confidence. Not until we started looking at new horses. I am determined to get my nerve back however so here is day one with Darcy.
I'm not saying its boring- heck no! Its just the little demons in my head keep asking when she is going to do something wrong- I feel her breaking into a trot and wonder is it a trot or is she going to buck or tank off with me never to be seen again. She is being very forgiving and happily walked around doing serpentines and changes of rein, bless her as though she knows.
Has anyone else been here and got through it? I need success stories- lots of them!

I want to get to know her. I was saying this to MrP last night. I want to know what she does if something frightens her, I want to know if she puts in a mini buck when she goes into canter, I want to know what she does when she is on her toes, just so I can be prepared for it. I think I have ridden one too many naughty horses- we will gain each others trust and she will give me my confidence back I can feel it - then there will be no stopping us! Also I am riding in the brand new Barefoot saddle- which she has never been ridden in before and in the half hour that I rode her the girth straps had given that little bit and I could feel it wobbling- once I trust the saddle it will make a difference!! I'm really not making excuses here it wobbled - a lot!

She is lovely to ride though nicely forward going off a squeeze with your leg but not so much that you feel out of control- I really dont know what was going on with my hands- maybe a couple of lessons wouldn't do me any harm after all. MrP was saying "bring her head in like you did on Saturday and make her canter..." I could tell you what I said but...

Then I got MrP up on her and led him round, he fidgeted, and grumbled that the saddle wasn't straight , then that his stirrups were too short, then not the same length, wriggle wriggle fidget fidget, then that his hip hurt! Darcy was an angel and just walked with me on a leadrein. I told him to pull himself together and that I would have noticed if the stirrups were odd... but sure enough they were a hole out (so much for experience!!) then we had the whole rigmarole of getting MrP off (Darcy could yet become the first ever horse to be sainted!) He says that having his legs in that position hurts his hips somehow (thank god men don't give birth then!) and that however far forward he leans he can't swing his leg over the back of the saddle and he doesn't know what to do with his hands while he is leaning forward. I was tempted to say hold onto the reins to stop your horse wandering off, but being as he had done the whole thing just holding the pommel (Blackpool donkey style) and just the very end of the reins I thought it best to keep my sarcasm to myself (see I am growing as a person) So MrP scrambled off in a very undignified manner I think teaching him to ride could be a long process- at least he is trying and he's keen (but he better not spoil my horse in the process...)

As for the fat broad that he took pictures of... I will be keeping a very close eye on her! I told him last night, it's not so much his having an affair that bothers me, as him letting her ride my horse!! ;O)

Poppy thought it all looked such fun she wanted a ride- and got her hat on ready- but I told her she's not allowed in her 3rd trimester

Next post will return to baking and my early attempts to master a sewing machine and Cairo's 15 minutes of fame on ShopDogs blog and how it went to his head- tch!





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I haven't put a new post on for a while.

I have been doing a lot of soul searching, my life is going through such a lot of changes- getting married- finding the happily ever after cottage- my old dog (Loulou) dying - selling our little foal Willow (she was much bigger than the photo you understand when she was sold...) and so many other minor things too. I always find that periods of change like these lead onto more and more change.

It was this soul serching that made me look long and hard at the horses- I love them so much- especially Romeo whom I have owned since he was weaned from his dam and Riley has wormed his way into my heart with that cheeky freckled face and the ponies, what's not to love about the ponies?? (less than 4 weeks until Poppy's foal is due now)

"What riding? Horses?" MrP looked shocked. I say those words so often, especially when faced with a muddy winter ahead of me or 4 filthy stables to muck out, but I think he detected from the tone of my voice that it was different this time - I really meant it!! Not altogether you understand. I was just so fed up of everything being a struggle and a fight, 20 years ago I would have loved it but now all I want is a quiet life and to enjoy my horses.