Wet.

The day began grey then by the afternoon we had frequent light to moderate rain showers.

My morning was spent doing various household jobs and getting ready for a riding lesson in the afternoon. I had Serena again for the lesson. We did a lot of trotting when I learned that although her trot is very speedy she responds well to the way you sit and you can slow her down simply by slowing the rate at which you rise without having to do much with the reins. We worked on leg yielding which I wasn't too bad at and then we did quite a bit of canter work. There were only two other riders in the lesson so we were able to work independently rather than simply following one behind the other. One of the riders was younger and I think on her own horse while the other lady was 60 and had been riding for a few years. This I know because she also goes to disco aerobics though she didn't recognise me because she likes to be at the  back of the hall while I prefer to be right in front.

After the lesson I went down to Morrisons to do some shopping. It's also handy because they have decent toilets with plenty of hot water (the ones at the stables are okay but more basic). I can give my hands a good wash and then brush my hair which is generally a combination of the 'dragged through a hedge backwards' look while also being sweatily plastered to my head. I then went into town, bought a couple more handy fridge trays to organise the kitchen fridge and the gin for my sloe gin. (I did explain to the cashier what they were for as I didn't want to look like an old boozer.) I got the above hebe at Home Bargains. They don't have many plants so it was a lucky find as only this week I'd been thinking I needed to get something evergreen to fill up the gap under the hedge at the front of the garden especially for the winter and a hebe was one of the shrubs that came to mind.

This morning I took a couple of photos of the steps area in the front garden as a record before I start work and then I thought to look in my files and found some even earlier photos.

2019

2023

2020

2023

So far all I've done is remove the gate and post and cut back the foliage overhanging the path. It's no fun getting slapped in the face by wet leaves or poked in the eye by a sharp branch. Lots more work to get it properly sorted.

Grey tonight with not much chance of a repeat of last night's pretty sunset.