Happy Birthday Romas.

Happy Birthday to Romas, our youngest who as can be seen is still playing the drums as well as holding down a full time job in Stoke where he lives with Laura and their two dogs. He leads a busy life so we haven't seen him at all this year.

The sea was grey and very flat this morning with just the smallest of waves lapping at the shore. We weren't sure if the builders were coming today but then I got all excited when Peter told me they had arrived. That turned out to be a false alarm as the white van that had stopped outside went off again. Possibly one of the many builders working in the area checking out the work.

As they are doing pony club stuff at the stables tomorrow we had our riding lesson this morning (no Welsh class as it's half-term). There were only four of us in the lesson which today was taught by Katie, one of the girls who works at the stables. I rode Margaret and did okay. It was all work in trot, straight lines and leg yielding, nothing too exciting. Whenever we let the horses walk on a loose rein I amused myself by seeing how well I was able to control Margaret without using the reins at all. I was able to get her to turn by using my legs and body but although I was able to slow her down I didn't manage to bring her to a halt just by using my body and a bit of voice. That's something I can work on in the lessons. Cadno would grind to a halt the minute I stopped using my legs to ask him to go forward.

Afterwards I did the usual round of shops and then once in town I went straight up to the framers to collect a mount they were cutting for me. I also took along a Bryan Pearce print of Penzance to be framed. It has sat for too many years in a clip frame that wasn't the right size but now it will be in a proper frame with a grey mount that was the best compromise as the print is on cream paper but will be hung on a white wall.

At home I had four attempts at putting the new mount on a painting and back in the old frame. Each time I got everything put back together black specks would appear on the inside of the glass even though I had done my best to clean the delicate glass. I had to keep taking it all apart and cleaning the glass until eventually I got rid of all the black specks. When I hung the panting on our bedroom wall I could see that the dark frame needs a bit more lightening up with the gold spray which I shall do tomorrow.

And then it was time for disco aerobics. A number of people had dressed up for Halloween and Rachel had done her best to pick spooky music for us to dance to. The hour flew by and all too soon I was walking home past families dressed up  for Halloween. Not many houses were doing 'trick or treat' and some just had some decorations and a bowl of sweets outside for the children to help themselves. I heard one little boy tell his mum in a hushed whisper "I took two." I think I'll make an effort next year and do something down by the garden gate.