A New Hat.

We had heavy rain in the night and it was still raining when I got up at 5.30. It soon eased off making it possible for me to sit in the doorway without getting a face full of rain. The rest of the day has been dry. Warm when the sun shone and bitterly cold when the clouds covered the sun. On my way to the stables I could see wisps of cloud down below the level of the hills being illuminated by the sun but I couldn't find a place where I could capture it on camera. 

Getting up early meant I was able to do my Duo Lingo as well as take down the dust sheets in the hall and put back the pictures and hangings before going off to the stables. Bit by bit things are returning to normal.

At the stables I had Cadno again. There were six of us in the lesson and for once we did a lot of canter work. Our instructor set up coloured cones so that we had six options for cantering half a 20m circle. We began in trot and then were told who should be cantering but by the end we were deciding when to canter and there were no collisions. I did better than last week and only twice did Cadno drop back to trot a stride or two before I asked him to slow down. Having the confidence to remind him that I was carrying a crop has stopped me wearing myself out by the end of the lesson.

When I get to the stables once I've checked to see which horse I'm riding (short crop for Cadno, schooling whip for everyone else), I go and sort out a hat. There are plenty of hats to borrow, boots too, and they have different coloured silks to show which size they are. I went to get a 2 1/2 (blue silk) but the one I usually have wasn't there. The other two are slightly bigger as each make or even style comes up differently but I had to wear one. Time to go and buy my own hat. I went to Charlies which has an equestrian section and what an experience it was. I had two ladies, a bit like having your own personal shoppers, who measured my head and then proceeded to try different hats on me. When I was a child and right up until I stopped riding, hats were basically one design, a standard black velvet with a few colour choices. I was very fond of my royal blue hat which being the rebel I was I teamed with a light blue hairnet. (Expected in some of my lessons then but not now.) Nowadays the safety standards are a lot higher with hats having a lot of padding and looking more like vintage scooter helmets. Think, Mutley from the cartoons. There are two main styles, a plain jockey style designed to be worn with a cover (pom-poms are very popular) and ones with a built in peak and decorative trim. At first I had my heart set on a velvet one that looked like my old hat but bulkier which would be for dressage riders (I can dream) but it must have been the wrong shape for my head because even when the ladies were sure it was the correct size it felt too tight across the forehead. They were most insistent that the hat should be a snug fit and go on with some suction. There was much prodding and shaking, the hat had to be tight but with some leeway at the back. Giving up on the velvet hat they tried different styles but there were differences even within the same make. One make was Champion but I wasn't keen on the silver trim with the word champion across the front. Anyway they didn't fit. Eventually we were down to one, a plain dark blue jockey cap, made by Champion. To make it better visually I added a dark blue velvet cover with a peak. I then had to sign a form to say I was happy with the hat and to confirm that it had been fitted correctly by the two lovely ladies who then walked me to the till at the front of the shop where I was presented with a copy of the form. And of course it is non-returnable so I wouldn't want to have spent over £100 (gulp) on something that doesn't fit.

While I was in Charlies I stopped to look at their model village where every little group of figures had a moving part. I wouldn't want it at home but it was fun to watch for a while.

Before going to Morrisons and Charlies I had called in at the industrial estate and bought; paint for the bathroom, a radiator paint roller which I find easier than a big roller and some wood trim to go on the edge of the piece of worktop on the bathroom cupboard. In town I went to the bank and had a look around some of the charity shops where I found one ball of an interesting black, grey and white wool. My last stop was at Lidl. There in their small selection of plants were Christmas cactus, not just the pink ones but white ones too. After I looked everywhere for a white one last year and ended up buying one from a specialist nursery. I thought about buying one then decided that I didn't really need to. However now the Peter is going into town tomorrow I've asked him to get me one if they're still there. I was thinking of finding something for the bathroom window so maybe either the spider plant or the unhappy trailing plant might do and the Christmas cactus could go above the air plants.