Morning

Monday again.....

That was a lovely weekend. We dropped younger son at the stables on Friday evening and he ended up staying there until Sunday afternoon. He had a great time, he works hard there too. Older son played football on Saturday afternoon for the first time in ages. He was knackered when he got home and was in bed by 10.30. On a Saturday! On Sunday he went to Carrow Road where City were playing Man Utd. City apparently were the better team by far, but Giggs got a 92nd minute winner 2-1.

And us? Well we took the dogs to Sandringham for a walk - it's about 20 minutes drive away and a great place, with a nice tearoom too. It wasn't very busy, well the tearoom was, but that's no surprise really. We had a lovely walk - both the dogs behaved really well especially around the other dogs there. We have only recently been able to let them both off the lead at the same time (they used to run and run and run.......) and they did well. Coffee and cakes at the tearoom (and yes, I did have my camera with me too).

Sunday was very relaxed. We sorted out some of my photos and put them in a display album to leave at the stables. I have started doing Equine photography and the album has samples of my work. I am seeing if there is much interest from the liveries at the yard. Quick trip to the airfield with my husband, to hear about the new controlled airspace restrictions at the airport. Then a lovely roast dinner and a play about with my new Florabella actions. I have treated myself to Vintage, Colour and Haze and Black and White. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm..........

I have also dug out my coursework for the OCA course I was doing. I am going to pick it up again, and have been giving it some thought. I am not sending it up for assessment any more as I have long since missed my deadlines, but I am going to do it for me. I will continue to use one of my other blogs on here, My Corner Of Norfolk, as my learning log.

This week - more riding lessons, playing with my photos and doing some coursework, looking at Excel and working out how to keep fat dog out of the chicken run.....

Hack

Bev called me and asked if I'd like to go on a hack on my horse. Would I ??? Of course!

So I got to the stables and sat on Lara for the first time ever (she's my son's horse really - we just pay for her !!). She's 15.2 hh and and an absolute darling. We went out in a group of 5 and walked along the track and along a road and then had a short trot. I had been told she is bouncy in trot so I was ready for it. It was lovely, I just had to rise a bit higher than I had been used to. A bit more walking and we got to a scary hose with an even scarier leak which was lying across the lane. Eventually with a bit of dancing, we managed to show it who was boss and stepped over it and carried on. Then we turned onto a track and Lara took this as her cue to take off. I wasn't expecting it and I shot forwards and my legs went back. It's quite difficult to recover from that whilst still in an active canter, but Bev managed to position herself so she could grab Lara. I knew what I had done wrong in not controlling her, and so I was even more alert from then on. We stayed in walk for most of the rest of the way, until we made the turn for home and the horses got excited. Short trots followed by an unexpected canter, which was surprisingly comfy and I stayed in position for - yay me !

More lessons next week. Hopefully my legs will have recovered by then...

I have been on the Aspire photography courses website and there is a new course covering Equine photography. It's a weekend course and it's in the New Forest in June. I'm hoping that I might persuade my husband a) that it's a good idea and b) that he will come too as he can fly at one of the clubs down there.

Oh, and did I mention that Eddie laid her first egg for us yesterday? Delicious!

And the other minor miracle? Teen son has tidied his room. I think I need to lie down...