Busy weekend

Not checked in here for a few days, but I do have an excuse! Last Friday, my husband and I flew to Sweden for the weekend. I have mentioned before that he is a pilot, and he has been looking for aaaages for a motor glider. When I first met the husband, he flew gliders as his hobby, having learnt to fly them in the ATC. A few years ago he got his PPL and since then has mainly flown power. But he has always wanted a motor glider which gives the best of both worlds. And he managed to find a nice looking one which was based in Sweden. So, after much planning, we went away for the weekend, with an arrangement in place to see the plane on the Sunday. So we went to Stockholm on the Friday and stayed over on Saturday too to do some sight-seeing. We saw the Wasa, which is a 300+ year old oak warship which sank on its maiden journey after just 20 minutes. Three hundred years later it was found in the harbour and it was eventually raised on 24 April 1961. Since then it has been conserved and restored and is 95% original and a spectacular sight. So much so that we spent over 4 hours in the museum!
On the Sunday we got the train to Arvika where we were met by two men from the airfield who took us over to see the plane. The airfield is in stunning surroundings, the lakes were all frozen over, the skies were blue and the sun was shining. Perfect. Husband crawled all over the plane and then flew it, and loved it. Deal done, hands shaken, and back to the 1970's in the form of our hotel for the night. Not quite as plush as the one in Stockholm, this was faux-Roman with colonnades and painted marble effects. Hmmmmmmmm!
Back to Vasteras airport via train on the Monday and home again.

I do have some photos and I will pop them on here shortly.

No.1 son has collected his car, bought from his aunt, and is happily driving it on L plates with husband in the passenger seat. He is made up of course!

No.2 son spent most of the weekend at the stables, not a bad life eh?

And I was up there today for a hack. On Pampa this time and in a western saddle which was lovely and comfy (like an armchair) although my jumper kept getting caught on the horn. It was a beautiful morning with blue skies, and we saw deer in the fields. Can't get much better ways to spend a Wednesday morning than that, surely. Lots of trotting, and some long canters with no brakes! I abso-flipping-lutely loved it.

And now I'm back home drinking tea and looking at the pile of ironing that needs to be done... It really needs to be done...

The Weekend

We had a lovely weekend. The weather has suddenly turned warm and we took full advantage of it.
On Saturday we flew down to a friend's house as my husband needed to speak to him about the motor-glider he is hoping to buy. It was lovely flying down and dropping in on him, even if he was just on his way out and not able to chat that day ! We will have to go again soon!




This is the Chipmunk we flew in. Lovely.
Then on Sunday, we took the dogs to the beach at Caister. We hadn't been there before, but there was a fab big car park right next to the Lifeboat Station which made parking and getting the dogs out nice and easy.
The beach was lovely, soft sand and a few pebbles. The dogs had a great time chasing up and down the beach and into the sea chasing seagulls.




Look at the shadows in the photo - and that is in March!!!!! The dogs have been snoring ever since we left the beach, and the smell of wet Labrador is wafting through the house as I type!
A lovely roast dinner topped off a great weekend.
This week, I have another riding lesson, and I also need to go into the City to collect my new glasses. I also want to go through my clothes and have a Big Sort Out. Spring is definitely in the air...
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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...