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Heat wave!


The weather has continued and this week / weekend has been hot, hot, hot. Just as the kids went back to school we have been blessed with an early taste of summer and it couldn't have been better timed for Izzy's party #2 - the spa gathering! Having looked at the weather I booked a bouncy castle at the last moment and despite both girls saying they were far to old for that, they all spent the whole day bouncing on and off it (with Bertie), everyone having great fun. We ended up with Izzy and Abi and 5 of Izzy's friends having Emily and Yesim do nails and make up while they took it in turns to choose music and make the most of the sunshine - it really couldn't have been better. Last night the weather broke for a while and we had an amazing storm - great big crashes of thunder and claps of lightening which lit up the whole garden. The rain lashed down and I think the whole county was up at 2:30am finding it impossible to sleep through all that noise. Amber and Effie had stayed for a sleepover so the 4 of them huddled up together in the playroom counting the seconds between thunder and lightening to see which way the storm was moving. I loved doing that when I was young - so nice to think some things don't change.


Today was all about water fights and chilling in the sunshine. After a disrupted night and an early morning (Izzy arrived in our room at 6:12am to tell us they were awake - I cant remember the last time Izzy saw 6am on a Sunday!) we did pancakes for breakfast and then they played while I (finally!) made it out on my bike for a short ride. It's been ages since I managed to coincide opportunity and motivation for cycling. I've been doing other things to keep fit, just not cycling. By the time we'd had people pick up kids / bikes / other bits and pieces it felt like another very busy weekend - we must be heading towards summer!


Abi's highlight this weekend was getting out for a short ride this afternoon on Sam - the pony she's intending to have on a part loan. He's been suffering with a damaged tendon so it's taking a while for him to be back to work, but today we were told we could start riding him. We spent ages brushing him (he's moulting like mad given the weather) and then ventured out for a short hack. As it was it turned out to be shorter than intended - we got half a mile down the road and he refused to go any further, blowing out of his nostrils and looking like he just wanted to go home. I'm not surprised - he hasn't been ridden for ages and very few ponies that I've come across like going out on their own. I think we may need to find a friend for him to hack out with if we are going to get much further than that! We decided to play it safe - it's early days- and so he pranced back to the yard looking very fine, proving to both of us that when he's fitter and less hairy he will be a very nice looking pony!


Unfortunately the forecast is set to return to something more akin to normal temps for the time of the year - such a shame, all that sunshine really does make everyone feel so much better. Oh well, at least we've had a reminder of what we can hope to expect for the summer.





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