Storm Goretti.

So far we have escaped the worst of the latest storm, Storm Goretti. Indeed this morning I was relieved to see that although very cold everything was dry. But in the distance the tops of the mountains had a lot more than a dusting of snow.

Not surprising after yesterday evening's weather. Because of the rain I had driven to the hall for disco aerobics. A good thing as when we came out of the hall it was snowing, or rather great handfuls of snow were falling from above. Technically it was a blizzard. The ground was wet so the snow melted immediately and after a couple of hours we were back to rain.

This morning I had an easy drive to the stables though inland the hills were snowy. There were only four of us who had been able to make it to the stables for the lesson and apart from two people after us all the other lessons were cancelled.

I had the lovely Tex again and it was a really good lesson with just the four of us. We re-did the exercise that had caused great confusion  the last time we tried it. Being one of the 'confused' people last time (a couple of the others had done it in the past) it's now clearly fixed in my head, a 10m circle in every corner and in the middle of the long sides and circle twice if it looks like I'm getting too close to the horse ahead. 

Another thing Katie did was to ask us to thing about a specific goal for the year ahead and she would help us to work on those. I immediately said I would like to work on canter transitions as I know mine aren't too good. Riding Cadno for a long time made things too easy as the merest touch of the aids and off he would go. Other horses need much clearer aids and quieter hands. Especially Tex who spent a long time only being riding by children or going off like a steam train on hacks. I was also quietly hoping that we would do more cantering in the lessons as recently due to new horses etc all the work has been in trot. And hooray, we finished off with some canter work. After a couple of false starts I got a very nice canter out of Tex.

 

After the morning's dry start it has been one sleety shower after another. At the moment and through tomorrow the whole of Wales is under a yellow warning for snow and ice. I suspect the worst of it is going to be inland. Poor Cornwall was under a rare red wind warning yesterday with wind gusts of up to 100 mph. It was a shame to read that on St Michael's Mount 3/4 of the trees have been uprooted as have many bushes. Trees down and power out for many people across the country. It's due to ease off tomorrow and worsen again on Sunday.

After riding I went shopping. Morrison's car park had less than half the usual number of cars. Fewer shoppers made getting around the supermarket much easier but most of the fresh fruit and veg shelves were completely empty. I guess their supply lorries couldn't get through the mountains. Luckily Lidl had sufficient fruit and veg though the quality of their fresh produce is variable. I dropped into Charlie's, resisted buying any more decorations at 50% off and then came across a whole load of bulbs at 70% off. I got a couple of packs of alliums and three packs of snowdrops. I already have some snowdrops but you can't have too many snowdrops in the spring.

I didn't bother going to the small shops in town only going into Craft which is by Lidl's carpark. There I bought two notebooks for 50p each. Notebooks are always useful and the spiral bound one has a pretty cover.

I was home earlier than usual in time to spring clean another section of our larder which is made up of three shallow top units on top of each other. That way you don't lose things at the back of the shelves.