Days of relaxation...and some extra entertainment

I have had some very nice, relaxing days, with much food but also much riding.
Lovely.


When the snow comes it makes all the difference for us riders, so right now I am a happy girl.
Before we get the snow it is dark after work, and the ground is either frozen (and often uneven) and before that it is muddy. It is not easy to work the horses.
With the snow it is light even when it is dark, and we have a very good surface to work on.
Hooray!





Fame and I have been really enjoying our trail rides again.
We have been happy both of us, Fame striding out, full of energy and with toppled ears and me enjoying the ride and the scenery.
I had planned to do some dressage work too, but until today we have been dashing through the snow instead.


Yesterday after we had passed the frozen creek and were on our way up to the stable, a large male moose was laying down in the snow, just beside the path.
I stopped Fame to see if he was interested in moving.
He was not.
He only moved an ear, staring straight at us and stayed put.
I could not take any photos, because I had my hands full trying to keep Fame in place.
She either did not see the moose (which I doubt, even if he was laying quite still), or she just did not care as she was heading home to her food.
She was one impatient horse.
I finally had to make a detour through the winter jungle, emptying a lot of snow laden trees in my neck (of course) but we came home safe and sound, and Fame got her food...



I have mainly been riding bareback. It has been very cold, and it is the easiest way to keep warm.
Even if Fame has been full of pep I have managed to survive sideways crow hops at full speed and suddenly stops from canter, and all the other fun things a happy horse can entertain herself and her rider with.
But yesterday it was a close one.
We were on our way home, and I had asked her to trot.
Her trot (by magic) increased in speed and I resigned and asked her for canter instead.
Riding bareback it is absolutely to be preferred. Hehum.
Anyway the canter increased in speed too (by magic! has nothing to do with being on our way home) and we reached a T-junction path.
Toot-tooot.
We managed to negotiate a steep turn and Fame gets so elevated by this so she has to launch a series of bucks.
Due to the cold I was riding her with a hackamore, which makes it hard to get the head up. I did my best anyway and in addition growled "NO" loud and clear, trying to stay on, sitting more and more loose for every buck.
And she goes "What?? Oh, sorry" and stops bucking, but I can tell she is quite smug with her little self.
Stupid thing.




In addition to some quality time with the horses, I have been busy with a long standing project.
We listen to audiobooks a lot in the family.
Unfortunately when you have audiobooks in CD formate, sometimes a disc go missing, in particular if you have kids in the house.
I have finally taken the effort to rip the CDs over to mp3-files.
It takes some time, but then we have a safe and versatile copy.
It makes us able to play the books both on our mp3-players and in the car, where the player also can handle mp3-files. Suddenly you don't need 10-20 discs, just one or two which makes life easier. Being audiobooks you can compress down to 48Kbps, which downsizes the files considerably.

I got two very nice Christmas presents from my sister this year.
In the beginning of the 80'ies Trevor Nunn's and Royal Shakespeare Company's version of "Nicholas Nickleby" was sent on TV.
It is a theater show, a marathon performance of 9 hours, divided into several episodes and recorded at one of the world’s most historic theatres, London’s Old Vic.
It was very, very good and we were stuck to the screen while it lasted.
This year I got the show on DVDs and a box of safran and almond biscotti to follow.
Coming in after a cold ride it has been wonderful to creep up in the sofa with a hot cup of tea and some biscotti.
The show was just as good as I remembered it; the cast and the adaption is nothing but fantastic, and the sofa is now full of crumbles...



The spruces are majestic now.
It is my favourite winter tree.
So beautiful, and provides shelter and food to the wild animals too.


Enjoy your winter everyone!