Grey.

Grey with little wind and not too cold today. (Photo taken late afternoon.) I was up early enough to have my coffee outside where the sound of Cosmo and Zeus howling was even louder than the gulls wheeling overhead. It makes me smile as I don't suppose people expect to hear wolves howling in a seaside village.

I thought I would see a lot of downed trees along the track to the stables but apart from a few piles af branches by the side of the track you would hardly know a storm had blown through. It was a bit different on my way home after shopping when I came up against a road closed sign. This was where the road zig-zags down the side of a wooded hill close to town. I had to turn around and head back to the main road which becomes two miles of 20mph through a strung out village. Fortunately I was able to take a side road back and pick up the coast road which winds its way through the countryside. I always go this way if I can. And because of the road closure at the town end the rest of the road was completely empty.

 

When I got to the stables I found I was riding Margaret and the guy who often rides Margaret had Meg. I'd noticed last week that Meg was kind of wobbly around her middle and today her rider eventually had to get off so that the numnah that sits on top of the saddle pad could be removed. I had a good ride on Margaret and the cantering was better though when I asked her to slow down to a more collected canter she went back into trot. As she is young once she's cantered she gets over excited and the trotting becomes a bit all over the place. It's always good to have something to work on.

After riding I did my usual shopping. Morrisons was noticeably busier and there seemed to be more store people unloading large pallets of goods in the middle of the aisles. I'm concentrating on getting organised for Vytas and Sally's visit and Christmas, which is very much a non event with just the two of us, is an afterthought.

I called in at the butchers, supposed to be the best in town, which sources its meat locally, and bought sausages. I'm trying a fancy kind of pigs-in-blankets where you slice the sausages lengthways and put in cranberry jelly with slices of brie before wrapping the sausage in bacon. That sounds very rich but should be nice with the red cabbage cooked with apple, new potatoes and peas. I did the sausages as soon as I got home and they're now in the freezer. Another job ticked off my mental list.