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?
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....
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.
its the terrifying, horse eating wee donkey....quick...run away!!!!!
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 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......
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.
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.... 
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 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. 
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. 
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...
my little homestead veggy plot
the snow drops are just begining to show themselves. I have some time off work so hope to get the garden tidied and readly to 'go'. also time to put pencil to paper and get the veg beds planned.
lovely..throught the post comes the Organic Gardening catalogue, prompting dreams of spring and planting seeds. I am positive last year that I took good stock of what I had, what I needed and what I wanted......hmmm....
my old greenhouse is frozen closed! 
photo taken last Monday, Scotland ground to a halt and I had to walk five miles home. the weather report for today has not been good, cold and wet rain this morning and snow is meant to come in after it and then freeze......just for the moment the sun is out and its very pretty.
Abbey likes the snow, she gets very excited and gallops off when put out in the field.
its much deeper than this now, but she is still careering round in it and has to be persuaded to come in at night time, as long as she is dry she is happy!
new to me car, a nine year old Skoda, runs great! my poor old Fiesta rusted away around its never failing engine......what a shame! I picked the Skoda up yesterday after 2 1/2 weeks without a car and trying to get everywhere by bus. Two jobs and one wee pony and the bus adds hours onto the day. I'm very relieved to have a car and get some energy back.
and I thought if I could get myself a car then Abbey could have a nice new pink headcollar. She does have lots of 'stuff' but most of it has been bought second hand. Her old headcollar hanging on the wall there is second hand and too big for her...it'll go in the wash and be kept for spare. Now.... I think I need to get a nice pink lead-rope to match......
my sycamore tree turns colour and decorates the garden with its leaves. some nice cold days however more often is wet and cold and windy. not so nice now that I have no car, it failed its MOT and was scrapped two days later after the 'man who welds things' said NO. its a shame, I liked the wee Fiesta as it always went, never broke down, it was cheap to insure and run too. and I have no money to buy another decent car. I have been traveling by bus, well, there's an experience and about another two hours added onto already long working days.
here's a fairy ring in the garden
nearly the last of the lovely garden veg, this lot got turned into veggy chilli, very nice it was too.
there was one row of cabbages that 'did not do', and I kept looking at them and thinking I should just take them out....welll I am glad I didn't.....they were not cabbages, this is lovely calabrese! I froze them and gave the stalks and leaves to Abbey, she will get the stalks from the sprouts soon, and then the broccoli...it may go on for a while yet. there are still carrots to come out of the ground and apart from the leeks that is probably it for all my harvest this year. its been not bad even with all the neglect.....probably out playing with the pony instead....
the vegetable beds have 'edges', wow! haven't seen them for a looooog time!! I gave in and asked a local grass cutter to do the grass and the strimming, over the last couple of weeks there has been so much rain that it has been left to get too long. I have managed to cut most of the hedge by starting a 'little bit at a time' when I had time and it was dry..to look at it in one go is too much, so I did 'up to the post' , then 'up to the tree' , and so on, there is still a couple of sections to do but I feel that they are achievable in the near future.
Tansy right at the edge of the first photo. 
Abbey and I have been out riding round the fields, I love the peace and quiet. Not all is peaceful, I have purchased a small MP3 player with its own little speaker so that Abbey and I can have some music to listen to when practicing our flexion and cantering and 'stuff' when we are in the riding arena. I am a bit deaf so cannot stand putting headphones in or over my ears, also stereo becomes very strange when you cannot hear in one ear! As it is a yard where there is a house near, and other people about I think it would be impolite to have a full size stereo blaring while we rode. I always enjoyed the music playing at the two Quantum Savvy riding clinics I went to...one with Abbey and the first one with Katie. Who knows what the horses think? Abbey tried to eat the player when I showed it to her-I didn't want her to get a fright if I turned it on suddenly, ha, a whole new meaning to internal music......
I eventually got this bridle fitted correctly, its made from 'rawhide' and I believe a style in evidence in Argentina or Brazil, very pretty. I haven't ridden in it yet, we're still happy in a headcollar.
there was a couple of wee jumps set up so I though Abbey and I could try them. this jump is only a foot high....Abbey is going over it like it was three feet! she was a bit taken aback by these white and blue poles, we might try some walking and trotting over them this week to see if she learns they will not bite her, funny how she was showjumper in her previous life but still takes fright at things she must have seen before.
these are the older dulled down poles which did not seem to bother her at all, its probably less than a foot high in the middle and still she makes sure she has plenty of height. she puts a lot of power into her jumps and if I feel like she is throwing me out of the saddle. its been a long time since I did any 'proper jumping'......and it may a long time, if ever, before I do any more!
