Wet.

We've had a day of rain starting with fine rain that forced me to sit inside the doorway this morning then heavy downpours that soaked the hordes of shoppers in town.

Today I rode Margaret again and as all the work was in trot I did pretty well. At one point Iola (the owner) began filming us as we went around leg yielding and I wondered if she was going to post it on the FB page but nothing so far. It certainly made me sit up straight and pull in my tum. For a change as well as leg yielding down a long side we had to spiral in from a 20m circle to a 10m and then leg yield back out. The next lesson won't be until January when the horses should be fun to ride after their nice long rest.

Afterwards I did the usual shopping. There were slightly more shoppers than usual but it wasn't too bad.  I expect it to be much busier for the next few days as everybody feels they have to have groaning tables in order to celebrate Christmas. In Morrisons there were a lot of extra pallets of goods to restock the shelves all over the place which made navigating the aisles more difficult, that and the fact that my trolley had a mind of its own. The handlebar was bent right in so maybe it had been in an accident. That's what I told fellow shoppers when my trolley refused to spin around corners causing me to mutter darkly. I had a quick wander around Charlie's to eye up the decorations with the post Christmas 70% off sale in mind. Then into town, again fairly busy, Lidl and home. The country route home that I prefer was finally opened yesterday and as I left town I could see why it has taken so long to clear the road. Right on the edge of town is a caravan park and all along the road is or rather was a row of mature conifers, each a good 40ft high. All but one of them had snapped off and a crane was moving the massive trunks out of the way. Such a shame. Further down where the road runs through a steep wood there was another scene of carnage with the sawn off stumps of many trees both large and small on either side of the road.

 

I too had stocked up both for Vytas and Sally's visit and also for Christmas or in our case our traditional Christmas Eve meal, 12 dishes but no meat or dairy. I had to take almost everything out of the fridge and do a careful reorganising to fit everything in. Then it was a matter of finding space to put away the non fridge stuff. I hope I remember where I put everything as it's a case of open a drawer for a mixing bowl and find a loaf of bread instead. Then I pulled out the trundle bed in my study which is now our guest room.  It's a relatively simple process but still takes time and effort. 

No blogging for the next few days but providing the weather brightens up I'll be back soon with some interesting photos. Happy Solstice.