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Time off



I think at this rate I'm going to have to accept that if I manage to get to the blog every other week I will be doing well. Ever since we came back to Somerset life has been so full, but in such a good way that I just can't complain. Let's face it - having a horse doesn't help - it is such a time sucker. She makes Abi so happy though that I wouldn't change it. 

Given all this busyness I made the executive decision this week to more some of the holiday around that I'd booked here and there and take a whole week off around half term. The girls have got the Thursday and Friday followed by a full week, and so I have taken the luxury of having the week off before their full week so we will get 2 days together, but I get 3 days to myself!! I already have about 70 things I want to do so fingers crossed I get one or two of them locked in and achieved!

To get me in the mood I had Friday off this week and had booked Mum ages ago to come with me to a garden & gallery in Bruton. We set off after coffee with Dad and cuddles with Tolly and arrived in good time, feeling just a little out of place having not got the dress code memo of floaty skirt and riding boots... The sculpture was industrial and striking while the painting looked like a child could have done similar, but the gardens really were lovely and had lots of ideas that I can consider for our own one day. We had coffee but skipped lunch (2 coffees came to nearly £8), and then headed back to have bread and cheese with Dad - much nicer. After this I went off to the stables to ride Nula, before home and a shower. Friday evening we had been invited by one of the families in the village for drinks and so set off there just before 7pm, having not yet eaten. The plan was to stay only an hour and come home for tea, but of course this was never going to happen and we ended up rolling out of there after 2 bottles of prosecco (my no drinking is a bit shaky right now) at 10pm. Not the best parenting when the kids have Saturday school! Their house is the complete opposite of ours, very old and full of different levels with buckets of character, but I'm not sure I would swap. Its listed and although they paid about the same as we did (3 years ago), they've spent at least that again so far renovating it. Some of the work they knew they would need to do, others they didn't - such as the sitting room floor which collapsed in on itself the moment they lifted the carpet, and the tree they felled outside which turned out also to be holding up half the house! Of course everyone in the village has an opinion of what they should and shouldn't do - I think I'd prefer to be a bit less contentious and on the edge rather than in the middle.

The plan was also to discuss whether Abi might be able to put Nula in with their horses, but despite them being very generous and keen to add another to their brood, I don't think it will work. The set up is a bit unstructured for Abi's taste and they also have 4 geldings and 2 stallions - not the greatest dynamic to throw in a mare! The stallions in question are Shetlands, but even so, it would be chaos. I think we'll stick with what we have and accept we have to keep travelling. 

So while Abi rode today Izzy and I went into town and bought essentials (in her eyes) - hair dye and lip balm. Theoretically she was going back to a more natural brown but we seem to have inadvertently dyed it jet black. I just hope it fades before she goes back to school... tomorrow (!)  With this and the black nail varnish she is borderline goth, or 'independent grunge' as I've coined it. I love that they are  very different personalities 😍

Butter wouldn't melt
(when not dancing on the flower beds!)


 

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