ponies in the snow

girls at the gate. Abbey, Shuna and Fizz

Abbey and Fizz, I always think that two horse heads make a heart...

barefoot pony print.

its beautiful

but very cold, I feel like hibernating...

in the mornings

walking to the field


eating.... its a hard life....

early mornings...

I am not overly fond of early mornings, however the new stables Abbey is now living at it seems early mornings all go... they seem to have done a days work by the time I turned her out at 8.30am. I took my camera with me as yesterday presented some fabulous photo opportunitys when I did not have the camera, I will wait a million years for them to be repeated..blah blah humbug. here she is today grazing with Pie and Trinket.

Pippa providing a lovely photo opportunity...

the pheasant must be a regular visior as Abbey did not spook at him

fluffed up in the chilly morning.

spiders working hard as usual

wow.

my lap top no longer prints the letter "b". I have to copy and paste or think of another way of saying it. electronics.......

light

the clocks went back last night, so much less light in the winter, sometimes I go from dark to dark without seeing any... this is a lovely bar of soap I was given, love the way the light is shining through it... its aloe-vera soap. kind of like saddle soap with added greeness.

the clouds do this quite often, they seem to roll over the top of the hill. took this earlyish one morning on the way to see Abbey.

Abbey has moved house again, loved the place we were at all summer but the field was so big and we didn't have a stable that it became a real prolem having her overweight, its not good for horses to be fat as it can cause all sorts of prolems with joints and hooves. she looks quite unimpressed with the riding area we now have, its big enough to lots of things in, and there is also a covered area. its a busy place with lots of horses and people about. lots to get used to.

she gets tucked up in a little stable at night, not much space about for storing things... or.... I have too much stuff.....

shiny new boots

Abbey's got new reflective boots for going out in the evenings now the light is not great after work, she doesn't look too impressed.... as for the wet and needing webbed hooves just look at the puddles in the riding area...
nice and warm today but its a strange stormy feeling heat. just paid somebody to cut my grass and have started to clear the veggie beds out. got some final courgettes of the plants so I have chopped and frozen them to make pasta sauce probably at a later date. the peas are quite finished now, Alderman peas for next year definately very very nice to snack on.

rain and rot

the greenhouse is cleared out, the remaining tomatoes to ripen in an egg box in a drawer. I have no idea why that works but it does. the veggies still out are rotting where they stand, in the neglected overgrown garden... it looks derelict...
and the rain goes on and on....
whenever I have time its too wet to get anything done, I keep having to pay for somebody to cut the grass as it ends up too long and wet for me to do it. and at the moment I have no money to pay anybody and it started to look overgrown two weeks ago... I have a long weekend off in about three weeks so I would hope to get it cleared then. I think I'll rip everything out and cover the veggy beds in black weed control fabric which will keep it looking neater. I am not convinced its particularly good for the soil wildlife/bacteria though.
the flower beds need some clearing too, as the lovely things which look after themselves and spread are now all growing on top of each other. I'll try to pot up stuff I take out so I can give them away to grow elsewhere.
I did manage to get my hedge cut so it looks nice and tidy, last year my best birthday present was a battery powered hedge trimmer, it makes doing the hedge very quick and easy... I've almost got the hang of getting it to look straight.
so if there is a dry spell today I intend to rush out and play with my pony... poor negelcted garden doesn't get a look in!!

from far away....

having walked over the hill to bring Abbey in , then everybody else decides to come too... its a herd thing...

far away horses....

horses on the horizon, at least you can see them. sometimes they are away over the hill and you have to trek out to see where they are.

and then when you get closer....

Abbey moves off....

to hide behind a tree...

checks to see nobody is coming up behind her...

and goes to sleep behind the tree..... bless....

Kevin says

oh, hai!!

walking the plank

ta da! all four feet on the plank, brave pony.

take shelter

nice 'new to me' chairs for the garden, Daisy likes them! I have placed them where the sunshine would be at the time I get home from work... if the sun would come out and stay out!! I've sat in them once since they arrived. My dad took off all the old paint and resprayed them and soaked the wood in oil, think they look pretty good!

perfect!!

I asked a friend if he could make me a saddle rack and storage unit, this is what he came up with... isn't it fabulous!!

and an extra comment re: vets and farriers....... "People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost." - Dalai Lama.

deep breath and repeat often...........

barefoot pony feet

a couple of people I know, their pony's have shown some lameness recently, immediately their vets advise to shoe them. constrict their feet into uncomfortable metal shoes that restrict movement and circulation....why is that the first thing they say?
I am so annoyed.

http://www.barefoottrim.com/
http://sarahbellbarefoottrimming.com/buy/buy-the-book/
http://www.thenaturalhoof.co.uk/9.html
http://www.thehorseshoof.com/

feet...

if you wear sandals then your pony will jump on your foot...dirty mark shows where...

so the next day it will look like this..... and procede to be colourful for a while!

Abbey's feet are all in good order, but you can't put all four on the plank at once....

The Healing Touch book: Horse and Rider

The Healing Touch book: Horse and Rider: "Horse and Rider magazine will be featuring The Healing Touch book in their August edition"

hidden treasure

neglected, unwatered and forgotten in the corner of the greenhouse....and bearing fruit.

I ate them....very nice too!! I have since watered the poor strawberry plant and lifted it off the floor.

and this lovely clematis has flowered in one of the cold frames. it came out of the bargain pile at a local store last year, it looked very nearly dead. I think I might like to plant it beside my front door, there was always meant to be a climbing rose there but it declined to climb or even flower very much.

The Healing Touch book: Horse and Rider

The Healing Touch book: Horse and Rider: "Horse and Rider magazine will be featuring The Healing Touch book in their August edition"

look out!!

its the terrifying, horse eating wee donkey....quick...run away!!!!!

I am inclined to disagree with Abbey, I think he is a wee poppet...very nervous and skeptical of people, he has up to now allowed me to stroke his shoulder but only for a minute, then he gently moves off.

weather woes

its been so windy and wet all week, I've had to get somebody else to cut the grass as it was getting so long, and overgrown, and wet!! I took pity on this lovely peony and brought it inside where at least I can appreciate it, it seems that every time it flowers its an ivitation for the worst ever weather to come and blow all its petals off. My lovely acacia lost all its flowers in one afternoon. I am seriously considering getting black weed cover for the remaining three veggy beds and leaving them covered till next year.

Abbey meets her new friends...

Abbey was moved to a new yard on Saturday, this is her first meeting up with her new field mates, they are a fairly nice bunch, no nasty kickers or bully's among them. She is being pursued at the end by my friends pony, Roo, she also owns nice old Merlin and he was meant to be coming over to this yard at the same time as Abbey but he has gone down with the dreaded laminitis for the first time in his life aged 24..... bless him, his owner is very upset. I am hoping for a good recovery for him and he can come and join us soon. He is snuggled up safe in Abbey's old stable at least till the end of the month. We don't have a stable here which is a bit of a worry, she will winter out fine I am sure but its more just having somewhere safe to put her if needed.

There is a donkey though.... a terrifying creature!! And we come in through a field with some terrifying highland cows and a terrifying sheep. She'll settle soon hopefully......

sunshine and showers

the sycamore leaves are bright in the sun and there have been heavy showers of rain today. I wasn't planning much gardening but have been out and planted out most of the onion seedlings from the greenhouse, and sowed Carrot Flakke and Carrot Autumn King 2 straight into the soil. I haven't got any fleece to cover them so must get some as the cats will be in there as soon as they can!

a vision of future salad! onions, tomatoes and lettuce!! the onions and the beetroot need planting out, perhaps I should brave the showers and get this done today. I drew out a rough plan from memory of what was where last year so hopefully this years plan will move things on and not plant in the same place. my garden is actually so small that I wonder if rotation really does any good? sometimes it means things are only three feet away from where they were last year.

I think Daisy is watching a wee bird up in the holly, she sat there for quite a while. Abbey was moved to a new farm yesterday a friend very kindly used her big jeep and horse trailer to move her. All the horses there are nice and there wasn't too much of a to-do when she was introduced. I went over to see her today and she is super-spooky, difficult to get in the gate and not able to stand still to have her feet done. I just put her back out again and hope she will calm down as time goes on.

its a nice day

another great pic from LOL CATS

summer days?? in April??

Lovely weather! I have been eating baby salad leaves, sowed another tray today in the last of my seed compost so I must get some more. my own compost is too full of beasties for seedlings... I also sowed some courgettes. there is only one veggy bed still to dig over, and the grass got cut again this weekend, still need to find some enthusiam for weeding....

Abbey is shedding her winter coat at a furious rate, still a lot to come out.

spring

how nice it is to see emeging buds, leaves, flowers, a bitof warmth in the sun, some heavy rain making it gloomy but no snow and no frost.

here are the beetroot in their module tray, and three trays of onions, all old seeds so sprinkled liberally, some very well germinating and some not. a tray of White Lisbon onions did not germinate at all so I have sat it outside, it might or might or might nor germinate in time. in the house the tomatos, peppers and aubergines have all germinated, hopefully get them to maturity sucessfully.

and a couple trays for salad leaves, they've germinated very well. I've had some already in a cheese sandwich, I've no patience!!

one little daffodill

one little daffodill out today, this is about 6" high. I love daffodills so hopefully all its relatives will be flowering soon.

and in the background a Chinodoxa Forbessi, glory of the snow. very pretty and lots to flower in this clump too.

more seeds into trays today...in the house I've done the following tomatoes..Rutgers, Royal Chico, Yellow Brandywine, Black Brandywine, Oregon Cherry and Gardeners Delight. also in the house are Aubergine Tres Hative de Barbentane and Sweet Nardello Pepper.

into the greenhouse a tray each of Delphinium Galahad and Agastache Blue Spike, I think they might look very nice planted with each other. if they get that far, I often plant seed trays of flowers which get neglected in favour of the veggies needing done.......

finally got started

Started on the 15th with planting one seed tray each of Onion Red Baron, Onion Dorata di Parma, Shallot Ambition and Spring Onion White Lisbon. Then on the 16th I did a tray each of mix salad leaves, Beetroot Detroit 2 and a bucket for early carrots in the greenhouse. I note from my blog this time last years seeds were started on the 4th of March.

I have not tried starting beetroot in trays before and saw this on Gardeners World with Monty Don.

These are all 'old seeds', some from last year and some older. I am trying to work on the principle spending as little money as possible and of using up all these seed I keep collecting. The germination rates do go down with age but some seeds are viable for many years. I have used up the packets and have planted far too many for my wee garden(who could eat four trays worth of onions?), if they all germinate anyway, hopefuly there will be some to give away and that someone will have good use for them.

I cannot find my gardening notebook or last years plan of what went where. Hopefully they're in a safe place which I will discover sometime soon.

my poor garden

I spent a lot of time at the weekend just trying to weed and clear up in the border. For most of last year the garden was not tended to and there was only a small amount of weeding done, well I found where the line was drawn....the bit that was weeded last year has been weeded and cleared without too much major drama........and then there is a clear cut line that is populated with couch grass, buttercups, flowers that like to take over, tree seedlings....and on and on.

oh my goodness. Its almost so bad that I am considering digging up what I know to be plants and putting them in pots and then having to clear and re-start the flower bed again.

too wet outside...

Smokey Tiptoes says no to going outside...too wet!!

this little pot of Scilia Siberica has bloomed year after year on the doorstep. they are still in a plastic pot...think its time to upgrade them to something nicer.

turning up the snowdrops revealing how pretty they are...note the raindrops, I had to run back inside as the rain came on so heavily.

the last standing vegetable!! the leeks survived! I had left some purple brocolli as I have done this before and had a nice wee crop in the early spring, however this winter the very cold temperatures turned the plants to mush...

one veggy plot is tidied, the rest are waiting on some drier days. I must get out into the greenhouse and plant some onion and leek seeds. these will be 'leftovers' that are not yet out of date. perhaps germination is not as good with older seeds but its worth using them up.