brrrr....chilly..

cold and beautiful, the hills catch the last of todays sun.
Abbey makes faces at all the other horses as she comes down to the gate, modelling her red tartan raincoat... the horses have been turned out in the snow but for a shorter period than they would normally be out, they like to get out but complain they are starving by the time they come back in.

she discovers the camera is not edible.....

once she's in and has food she is more disposed to be nice to her fellow field mates, little Buttons would take the hay out of her mouth if he could reach!

at home Smokey Tiptoes sits on the mat and looks at the snow but doesn't go out...she's a house cat now!

and Daisy gets to stay in bed all day. Tansy did go out for five minutes but declined to have an 'in focus' photograph today. I should try to get one her on 'her' futon...no other cats allowed on it apparently, I haven't tried sitting on it yet so I'm not sure if I'm included in the 'get off!!'

Smokey Tiptoes

Smokey Tiptoes is a bit reluctant to come outside. Maybe its because there is 'too much' of everything for her, she's used to traffic, but not lots of people and all the houses. My other theory is that she's lived outside for two years and now she finds my house warm, cosy and the bed is too comfortable to give up!!
She tends to look outside and come straight back in, the longest she's been out is an hour, its been very wet and cold since she arrived so maybe she'll get out more when its warmer(if that ever happens!) and I'm out working in the garden. I know Daisy and Tansy like to come out to help me when I'm busy...

frost

a little winter beauty from a generous spider. its probably well homeless now as I took this picture just before driving home on the motorway. hmmmm, spot of rust there too.......
I drive a little Ford Fiesta, its eleven years old and still running good. Sometimes things break and fall off...ah well, I'll keep it as long as it goes.

competing with an injured horse?

SAY NO!!

this site has a petition against allowing horses to be used in copmetition if they are on bute or other painkillers. please add your name if you think competing on an injured horse is wrong.

CFL light bulb BURNS out

literally.....
I came in from doing Abbey, switched the light on in my bedroom and went for a quick bath as I was going out for dinner.
When I came out of the bath my bedroom was full of smoke and it was coming from the long life lightbulb!!! I took it out of the socket using a cloth and put it out onto the doorstep. At first I thought it might have been a fault in the light socket, but no, it was fine. I checked the bulb again and the plasitc is blackened slightly around the glass.
This frightened me more than a bit, if I had come in, quickly changed my clothes and gone out I may have been out for hours and left that light on.......which would not have been good!!!!!!
There is very little on the internet about this, a couple of stories, one from NZ, and some interesting press releases saying that CFL light bulbs are not a fire hazard? There is 'no smoke without fire' so why go to the bother of these press releases unless they are having problems they are covering up?
I have never heard of this and thought that these energy saving light bulbs were meant to be safer and better.
hmmmmm.....now I'm just plain worried about every single light bulb in the house, they are all energy saving. and I often go out and leave them on.

definately winter!

a very unkempt garden, thought it translates to photo very well, look at the long shadow of the greenhouse in the low winter sun, and this is before midday...it was a nice morning so another veggy bed was tidied and turned over with some home compost(one at a time due to sore back), two potatoes, two parsnips and one turnip being the total of todays harvest, now being stewed for my dinner.

Smokey Tiptoes gets onto the doorstop for the second time...yesterday this was as far as she got, today she made it into the garden for one minute....then she decides life as a house cat must be too good and gets back up the stairs pronto!! I'm glad she sees the house as a place of safety, and that she did not bolt away.

and it rains and rains

thats about it

monday

hmmm. yes. its been that kind of Monday.

Smokey comes to stay

this a photo of little grey Smokey and Phoenix, the stable cats, taken last year. sadly Phoenix was run over and Smokey has missed him very much. There are two other cats about but they are quite independant and not about most of the time. as there's no longer any horses staying at that yard, there will be no people about and I was very worried about her as she is such a friendly cat..... so Smokey has come to live with me, it will take her a bit of time to get used to being in a house, also for my cats to get used to her being here. She is fairly young still so it should be okay. We are now 5hours into our new 'household' and no fighting yet....actually they are all avoiding me mostly as I've just de-flea'd everbody and they hated it!
So when I talk about Smokey the cat, and Smokey the highland pony, I may be the only person who understands what I'm on about.....
One of my ambitions in life is to become a 'mad old cat lady', every street should have one!

more Winter Warmers

these are my daughters cats modelling their new jumpers...they are indoor cats so maybe they might feel the chill...Felix is the balck and white

and this is Sam. he always looks a bit surprised with his big round green eyes!

winter coats..

here's Abbey with her latest wardrobe aquisitions... gearing up for winter...she is still living out without any rugs on, and growing her winter beard and shaggy coat. some of the older horses are wearing light rain sheets to keep them dry and warm. when Abbey is stabled for the winter she will be rugged with waterproofs for the day and warm for nights.

these two rugs have been purchased from a very nice lady on e-bay, who very kindly sent along a third rug too, very generous! and much appreciated! its an expensive business getting everything together.

garden winds down for autumn

hmm, a much neglected 'long border', its looked better!! it had very little done to it last year due to the weather and this year was just about totally neglected. there has been a couple of attacks on invading weeds and not much else, the path is growing its own greenery too now!!

the leaves start to turn their fabulous autumn colours

a bright spot provided by...the name escapes me.... I've another one in yellow and its not obvious what they are. perhaps my brain cells are winding down for autumn too...

gladioli, stunning! but only one flowering stalk this year.

some winter fare still growing, the weather is turning a wee bit colder so this will be cut off and it'll go into the greenhouse to ripen off hopefully,

pot of pumpkin soup no.2!!

this year has provided more tomatoes than I've ever had before, just hope there will be enough warmth to ripen them off a bit more. some of them have been bitter, which may be the long cold time they have had this summer. one of my neighbors has been very helpful in opening and closing up the greenhouse to stop it getting too hot or cold if I've not been in.

and further proof of garden neglect! this cold frame ought not to be sheltering such a fine crop of weeds!!!!

if only life were always so simple...

borrowed from I Has a Hotdog

after some neglect....

its nice to have some veg coming in from the garden now, after a late start and some neglect! mostly everything is now weeded. I had to resort to weedkiller on the brick path as it was slowly dissapearing. it looks good now so hopefully will stay that way for a good long while.
bee! a lucky shot as it was on the 'cow parsley' as I pointed the camera, it must have just taken off.

just trying something

I need to have this picture so I can copy and paste it into my right hand column for a permanant link to Quantum Savvy. I had a wee picture and link before I updated my blog layout.....then all was lost......

whooohoooo!!

here is Abbey waiting for her tea, she has passed her Level 1 with Quantum Savvy, a natural horsemanship programme,

here is our 'front page' with all our assignments 'ticked', whoohoo!! she is a good girl!!

still thriving

I love looking at tree leaves, the way the light shines through them, and the colours of the leaves, It 'does not do it' with a photograph....I think it must be that movement creates a play of light and colour and I cannot capture it with a still photograph.

the bees are out and busy, due to comlete memory blankness the names of plants are totally escaping me today so I may come back later to 'identify'

love the colours, still no memory!

more busy bees

and my much neglected garden is still managing to grow, peas and beans here, there are also courgettes, onions, carrots, beetroot and pumpkin. tomato plants in the greenhouse and think a pepper too. the greenhouse temperatures are between 6 and 35 C. too much variation and too hot!!

this is the poppy produced by the tall, much awaited plant. there are lots of flowers, they don't seem to last long but there are more waiting to open.

and the blue poppy throws out another bloom. I love it.

natures paint palette

I am so impressed with the 'pattern' of this hosta, swirling watercolour effect

and the blue poppy has survived and is flowering just now

more of natures watercolour in the leaf from the wild orchid

firmly labled!!

colour is happening!! weeding is not!!

this poppy has been in 'leaf' for over a year, when I first got it I wasn't even sure what it was! hopefully it will flower soon. and thats where the pasta strainer went to....I maybe went out for salad and got distracted.....

the peony looks a bit reluctant to fully open...as soon as it does the wind will probably blow the petals off....

in the green house this sempervenium is flowering for the first time, funny little plants, they thrive on being neglected it seems!

the double poppy has been flowering for a good couple of weeks, its spreading to make a nice big colouful impact.

quaking grass, luckily neglected enough that I haven't weeded it out...

geranium pheum

also in white, very delicate looking but a tough hardy plant.