Dressage?

A mostly grey day today. Driving home in the afternoon I caught sight of some slivers of blue sky which vanished by the time I got home. 

Up again at 7.00 (my body knows when it's Friday) which gave me time to sit outside and then do some Duo Lingo before breakfast. At the stables I saw that I had Cadno again. That's fine because he responds well but does need more leg to keep the energy level up. Today we began working towards Passage, where the trot becomes a lot slower and bouncier. While all the horses we were riding would be capable of doing it we were only in the very early stages as no way are we dressage riders and the horses are ridden by all sorts of riders. That said Cadno definitely got slower and bouncier when I asked him to. Thankfully sitting trot is getting easier for me now which is helpful as we do all the fancy stuff in sitting trot. 

After the lesson I called in at the industrial estate to buy wood for the wardrobe and a window vacuum to make cleaning the condensation from the house windows easier. I've already cut the wood to size and primed it. To save using up the white spirits I bought the cheapest brushes at the pound shop as single use brushes. (That makes me feel bad about just throwing the brush away but apart from the money there must be an environmental cost to using white spirits.) I've looked through three tubs of curtains and fabric so far but haven't found the fabric I was thinking of for the wardrobe curtain. But I can now take most of the curtains and fabric to the charity shop since all our windows have curtains and I know what the colour schemes are for all the rooms. I used to enjoy being able to make cushion covers etc to compliment the design of each room but now it's time to pass on all the spares. At one point I thought I might make a patchwork quilt for our bed and looked for fabrics in the Dorma Country Diary range but then I was given a giant teddy bear fleece in cream which was perfect for our bed when it was cold and a quilt seemed superfluous.

In Morrisons I looked at the electric toothbrushes as the hygienist suggested using using one instead of an ordinary toothbrush along with the waterpik  to get to the back of my teeth. As it's after Christmas they had some at half price so I got myself one. However when I got to the checkout it scanned at the full price. I'd been careful to check that I had the same model as the shelf label but when the store person and I looked at the shelf the reduction was only for the purple model. The exact same model but blue was still full price and of course they didn't have any of the purple ones left. I wasn't going to pay £50 for a toothbrush so didn't buy it. Instead I went into B&M and got an Oral B electric toothbrush for £20 (RRP £50). 

I didn't do much when I got home apart from unpacking the shopping and dealing with the wardrobe wood. In the front garden bulbs are popping up all over the place. It will be interesting to see what they are since I rescued them from various planters and tubs in the garden. There was a clump of snowdrops in the bed above which I spread out and already several have flowers.

Another snowdrop has appeared in the next bed down and I'm pleased to see that the fennel seedling I planted there has survived. I think the seedlings I transplanted in the back garden may have been eaten by snails. I should have saved more of the many seedlings that grew under the now removed giant parent plant.