Sunday 29 March 2020

Surreal

I'm choosing to still ride, I think it is important for my sanity and his waistline and, famous last words, I've never fallen off him out hacking.  Everyone is interpreting the rules in their own way and while there are some people I could certainly give a firm shake to, there will be others that disapprove of my hacks.  Shopping has become an eerie experience, no one makes eye contact and you become so aware of how much you touch items and therefore, how much everyone else does too.  You step back to let someone come in the door and then when they change their mind and do a U-turn practically colliding with you, you mutter "for the love of **** make a bloody decision" you don't think you are nervous, but maybe you are.

Monday 23 March 2020

Lockdown

Gave Spidey the night off and went for a walk along The Tweed as the sun set.  As of 8.30 tonight we have moved into lockdown due to Coronavirus - work from home, only go out for food and essentials and one form of exercise a day. 

Sunday 22 March 2020

Coronavirus

So after what has felt like months of wet weekends the sun shone, the ground is drying up and it feels much more Springlike which may actually be really shit timing as people flocked to the countryside and beaches.  Images online of cars packed for miles along the road at Snowdon and reports of camper vans heading en masse into Cornwall and the Highlands.  So as the country is told to limit social contact due to Coronavirus people have headed out to get some fresh air but it was unnecessary travel to areas with ageing populations and limited hospital availability.  In addition to that I just can't get my head round the mentality of people who heard "we are closing the pubs and restaurants after Friday" and just thought "super, one last bender, the cask ale will be cheap!"  

I am undoubtably lucky, I can walk for miles from my door and see no one, my "me time" is in the hills on Spidey (who, all wood touched, is highly unlikely to cause me to need use of an over stretched NHS) and as an introvert with very robust mental health this social distancing won't cause me too much angst.  On a personal level I am not likely to die of Coronavirus, in an ideal world I'd like to avoid it completely, it isn't giving me sleepless nights but I do think this will get an awful lot worse before it gets better.  I think we will follow a similar rate of infections to Italy (who had nearly 800 deaths yesterday), we appear to be a fortnight behind them at present and have no way of knowing if they have peaked yet (probably not).  I think we, in the UK, had the benefit of hindsight and as an island we could and should of done a better job of slowing the tide. 

In other news... it's so FLOOFY!!!!


Wednesday 18 March 2020

Pretty girl

Lovely head shot of Chamfron Angel Dust

Tuesday 17 March 2020

All cancelled!

Caroline had a flying visit to Scotland yesterday so she popped in to see Prickle (Chamfron Nicobar) in his new home.  Her current Chamfron-eventer-in-the-making, Milano, is working nicely but with the country grinding to a halt due to Coronavirus (and rightly so) he won't be going to BE parties anytime soon.  I would imagine Blog updates will be very sparse for the foreseeable.  



Sunday 15 March 2020

Chamfron Olegario - Rising Four

 Olly looking very smart after a hair cut.  He will be four in May.

Wednesday 11 March 2020

Through the ears...

Chamfron Colorado hacking from Chia-aig Falls Achnacarry to Banavie today.





Saturday 7 March 2020

Chamfron Milano - First dressage outing

Chamfron Milano had a great first dressage outing, achieving a very respectable 62.4 and 66% in his BD prelim tests. Well done to his lovely rider, Flo Daly.



Thursday 5 March 2020

Another Andy Scott

In the middle of a new build housing estate in Prestonpans is an Andy Scott sculpture (the guy behind the Kelpies and the Dunbar Bear (now named DunBear).  It was commissioned to commemorate the 81 women convicted of Witchcraft in the town but it has nothing there to explain that and she doesn't seem to have a name.  After the creation of the Witchcraft Act of 1563 more people were tried for being or cavorting with a witch in Scotland than anywhere else in Europe, around three to four hundred were killed in Edinburgh alone, I wonder if I would of been safe!