Welcome visitors

We've had several occasions recently to be reminded of what nice people one can meet along the racing road, and our summer party on Sunday was one such event. I can't claim any credit at all for what was, I felt, a really pleasant afternoon, because Emma organised everything that could be organised, including arranging for the excellent Becks to feed us like kings - and the one factor that not even Emma can control, ie the weather, smiled on us too, which really was a stroke of luck in a month and a country where it seems to rain all the time. If everyone who came enjoyed the afternoon as much as I did, then it will have been a huge success. That's the way it felt to me, and it was just lovely to spend the afternoon in such a friendly, pleasant atmosphere.
There were plenty of smiles on plenty of faces, and some of the credit for this can be taken by our old friend Colin Casey, whose presence came as a very pleasant surprise to many, judging on the amount of people who greeted him with a cheery, "I'm surprised to see you here, Colin - I thought you were dead". To those unfamiliar with Colin, such an exchange might seem rather shocking, but Colin took all this in the spirit in which it was intended; and I can reassure anyone who saw Colin leave, which he certainly didn't do under his own steam, that he is still alive and kicking now, however hard to believe that may be!

We'd had a prelude to the party the previous day when Pat Harte from Kilmallock in Co. Limerick, a partner in Jenny Dawson, had paid us a visit. He'd found himself unable to come to the party, so instead treated himself to a day-trip to Newmarket on the Saturday. I hadn't met Pat previously, but had found him very easy to get on with speaking on the telephone, and meeting him in person was everything I'd hoped and expected. It was a pleasure to join him in a tour of the stable and the Heath. Several of Jenny's other owners were here the following day, and the weekend in general served as a reminder that she'd better turn herself into a good horse in the fullness of time, because she's definitely got a great bunch of owners.

Taking Pat around the Heath was really good: because we see this lovely place every day, it's easy to take it for granted, so it's good to take the time to remind oneself of its magic. I did something similar today with a really nice family of Spanish visitors, and in between times we'd enjoyed plenty more smiles, not least because we had Anthony here. Yesterday was a very special event because it was the first meeting of Anthony and Finn Tidmarsh, who is as dear a little boy as you'd ever meet. I'd love to think that in the fullness of time these two boys can become as good friends as their fathers are, and they certainly hit it off well enough first off. We had Archie and Minnie Fordham here for the afternoon too and the four children seemed to keep themselves well amused.

We have Joff with us again for his final week in Europe before he heads back down under; this was the first time that he'd met Anthony, and he too contributed to a really special visit by Anthony. One of the highlights, for Joff and I anyway, even if not for Emma as unfortunately she wasn't with us at the time, of Anthony's visit was when when the three of us were cycling in to town yesterday morning and happened by chance to bump into the great Michael Holding (pictured), who was walking back from the shop with his Racing Post. Anthony obviously wasn't really in a position to appreciate who were speaking to, but I introduced Michael to him with the description of "This is the greatest cricketer you'll ever meet", and it stuck in his head because I later heard him telling Finn about meeting the "greatest cricketer".