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Brrrr, chilly and happy birthday Izzy!

Sunday evening and the weekend is all over bar the shouting... that is getting the kids into bed without a full scale debate / argument ensuing. We’ve had another busy but lovely few days, this time in Taunton, managing to fit in Mum and Dad, Amanda et al, Kerrie and Ryan and Liz - not bad for 36 hours! Glenn stayed at home to keep the dogs (or himself) happy and we went down on Friday at the insistence of Abi who is very concerned that the clock is ticking on time at the Mill. Of all of us I think she’s is the one who most appreciates its special charms.

On Saturday Amanda and I rode, with me on an ever larger Dillon, now over 17 hands and enormous. He still doesn’t pick his feet up and so I spend half the time worried he’s going to fall flat on his face, and the other half conscious if he decides to take off with me I haven’t a hope of stopping him! Luckily he’s very sweet and neither happened. It’s loveky riding out together - reminiscent of old times and realising just how lucky we were as kids to have so much freedom to come and go as wel pleased on our ponies. On Saturday afternoon we took all the dogs (not ours unfortunately) up to Cothelstone Hill for a lovely walk. The weather has closed in again and it’s freezing after that brief warm spell (last week the kids were having water fights, this week we have the fire back on!), but despite this the views were spectacular and the walk was a perfect way to spend the afternoon. We’ve promised ourself a trip back when we come down for Kerrie’s wedding to see the bluebells which look like they’ll be stunning.

As ever I had Abi in with me - some things are just not worth fighting - and last night as we settled down to sleep she snuggled up to me and told me that I’m very special. Moments like those are so precious and no doubt likely to get increasingly rarer. I’ll write it here to bank the moment!

While Abi was in her element, Izzy as ever had a love hate relationship with going to Taunton. She loves to see everyone but of course she’s taken out of her little bubble of weekend happiness of seeing friends, watching YouTube and playing at home. She really is a creature of habit in this respect. She’s also made to feel acutely (by Abi) that she doesn’t enjoy it as much as her sister, so of course she doesn’t enjoy it as much as her sister! I tried very hard to do a few things this time with her so it wasn’t a bit more balanced but it’s hard. She’ll get over it.

We raced home this morning to get Izzy to a party at midday. The plan then was for Abi to ride (she’d already been at the stables with Amanda this morning) but instead she opted for a visit to Yesim and Amber’s. We’ve been discussing her having some lessons on Sam first to get a bit more confident on him. From my perspective the more time before we make any sort of commitment to a horse the better!


Final postscript - we've taken possession of a new family member - Larry the Lawnmower. He's settling in well and is most definitely a character. He's also doing a fab job of the lawns. This evening Glenn's phone beeped and he was sending a message "Larry is stuck!" - sure enough, we looked out and he was at the bottom of the garden, immobile and flashing his headlights... turns out he was stuck on a stick!!



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