Midnight snacks

I’ve been ‘trialing’ cats sleeping in the bedroom. So far it has been going OK. Hugo is a proper cuddle monster. He loves snuggling up in the small of my back. Dodo is happiest by my feet. Both are pretty good at staying put and have rarely woken me up (unlike Tom and Nero who used to party all night).

Well that was till this morning. At 2:30am I was woken up by a weird crunching noise. You know one of those noises where you’re trying to work out what it is. But your brain is also having a minor panic about what it could be.

Sadly my brain was right. Dodo had brought snacks to bed. 🐭 So there was me clearing a headless small rodent in a half asleep state.

Dodo was very unimpressed that his snack was taken away. And Hugo staged a protest by wailing outside my bedroom door for an hour.

Cats are now banned from the bedroom. Again.

Pondering

I’ve been pondering stuff today. I took a friend and her horse out for a saddle fitting. As I sat in the lorry waiting, I had another chance to reflect on this journey so far. Sometimes we need to look back to see just how far we’ve come. And bloody hell have I come a long way! I’m still here. I’m still smiling. And I’m still doing my best.

Local Flavours

Today I headed to a trade show at the Norfolk Showground to man a stall with Helen for Weddell and Turner.

My legs are aching, my face is aching and I’ve got a sore throat from talking. But I had a bloody brilliant day!

I’m a huge fan of their gingerbread, cakes and sweet treats. Makes it really easy to sell them to others.

Get those steps up

Definitely hit my step target today. I’d racked up 18.5k by 3pm after two ‘walk and talks’. 👏🏻 And avoided the rain showers.

As if that wasn’t enough I had a dressage tonight. It’s probably a good job Buddy and I don’t track our steps. We covered quite a bit. And managed to finish before we lost the light.

All in all a good day.

Boing

My little boy was flying this afternoon. Mostly away from the hedge that clearly had monster in it. 🤦🏻‍♀️

He’s been in this school thousands of times, but every now and then he decides that the far end of the arena is deadly territory.

I’ve been reading a cracking book called ‘Horse Brain, Human Brain’. It’s really helping me get inside his head.

At least today, we jumped all the jumps. In the right order. With impulsion. And a little bit of style. I’ll take that!!

Reflection time

So it’s been two years since I found out I was being made redundant for the third time and 9 years since I found out I was being made redundant for the second time. Talk about significant career date. You couldn’t make it up!

Understandably, I’ve been in reflective mood. I don’t feel like I’ve achieved much in the past 12 months again. Covidland is weird. That’s all I’m saying.

I didn’t think there would be more lockdowns.

I didn’t think both of my parents would be in and out of hospital (again).

I didn’t think I’d spend time in hospital with Covid myself.

I didn’t think being my own boss would be such an emotional rollercoaster.

I’ve lost friend I thought would be there forever. I’ve made ones I can’t imagine my life without. I’ve been scraped off the floor by some. I’ve been humbled by how far some will go for me.

I’ve learn so much about myself. It’s shown me that I am resilient, resourceful, determined, tenacious and so much more.

I’ve learnt to ask for help. I’ve learnt to help others the best way I can.

It’s been scary. It’s been emotional. It’s been so hard having to face so many things on my own. I’m grateful for the incredible people I have in my corner.

I know things will get better. I just have to keep moving forward and trusting the process. I will keep fighting, growing, believing, hoping and loving.

Blank canvas

So it’s finally done. After several aborted attempts, several culls and a lot of swearing, the cotoneaster is no more!

I have a whole new blank canvas wall to play with. It’s so exciting. I didn’t realise how deep the border actually is.

Looking forward to Spring and lots of new plants.