Sunny.

After a clear and chilly night the sun has shone all day and with no wind it didn't feel that cold. Except for first thing in the morning when some of the roofs were frosty and the car windscreen was iced over. I hope it hasn't damaged the succulents that I put outside. I'll make sure to cover them over for the next few nights until the risk of frost has passed.

I had Hazel again for my riding lesson. I had to work very hard trying to get her to bend her body to the inside and even to stop her craning her neck the other way to see what was going on outside the school. Then we had a number of 'spooks' after she decided that the plastic mounting block in the corner of the school was really scary. I think the fact that it was wet from the morning sprinklers made it look different. I had to cut across that corner of the school each time getting closer to the mounting block until she went past without a wobble. And then we changed direction and had to start all over again. All the messing about set off the dreaded head shaking as I tried to ride with relaxed hands and reins. Frustrating as the coming to a halt and turn on the forehand exercises were done perfectly, if you ignored the head tossing. An interesting and challenging lesson.

 

In the village near the stables there is a field which is home to three donkeys who today were enjoying a sleep in the sun.

As I'd done the shopping yesterday all I had to do after my lesson was take some bags of garden waste to the dump. Everybody must be gardening since I was stuck in the queue outside for 10 minutes before I could drive in and add my clippings to the communal heap.

From the dump I retraced my steps and came home via the garden centre. They haven't had their spring delivery yet so it all looked a bit empty.

Back home I prepared a potato, cabbage, onion, sausage and cheese casserole which will do for several meals for both of us. More 'soul' food which we both enjoy.

And of course I went out and did some gardening. The new solar lights turned out to be larger and brighter than I had expected and the way I had arranged them in a line was more municipal display than the ethereal effect I had been hoping for. I've repositioned them and we'll see how they look tonight. Once that was done I went over the shingle picking up all the stray leaves and stalks. It really does make a difference at least to my eye which gets drawn to the finest of details.