As the television news reports over the past couple of days have made clear, Britain's been hit with some very bad weather. We've got off relatively lightly here, as frost rather than snow has been the major theme. Not so umpteen towns around the land, and the television news last night made very sobering viewing. By contrast, this 'red sky in the morning' daybreak scene over the stable yard at 8 o'clock yesterday morning signified a shepherd's warning of nothing more daunting than yet another day of hard frost rather than, for us, a day of snow. We did have a dose of snow today - and it happened to coincide with my intended trip to Kerry Oldfield's farm in Norfolk to swap a couple of batches of horses over,
which meant that the trip was aborted when I reached Thetford and found that conditions in the thickly falling snow weren't at all good and were getting worse by the minute, leaving me to question whether, three hours thence when I would be trying to make the return journey, the road would be open at all - but overall here a normalish routine has remained more or less feasible without signficant discomfort. And many poor souls around Britain aren't able to say that, unfortunately. So it has still be fairly straightforward to keep the horses exercised more or less as normal, even if tomorrow morning we might have to pick our way to the Heath with even more caution than has been our wont,
because underfoot conditions might be very tricky indeed with the snow which has fallen today on the existing ice having by tomorrow morning having re-frozen into what is likely to be a very slippery surface. It's actually been harder, though, to get the cats to take enough exercise than the horses, as the indoor life seems to suit them very nicely at present. The horses, mind, are 'enjoying' the indoor life too (not, I think, that horses do enjoy spending too much time indoors) other than when at exercise as we aren't using the field at all at present because it is like the surface of the moon - at least we can speculate that the surface of the moon is very hard and rough, unless, of course, it turns out after all to be made of green cheese after all -
and the dogs aren't that keen on spending much time out of doors either, despite the impression that you might get from seeing Bean stoically - can one be stoic while looking sorry for oneself? - braving this snow squall which passed through on Saturday afternoon, rendering Warren Hill invisible in the process. This photograph, actually, represents rare footage of one of our dogs not running for cover as soon as something cold and wet falls from the sky! But by and large, for Newmarket at least, the past few days have been ones of clear skies and hard frosts - and as all sensible cats know, clear skies and hard frosts are better appreciated from behind glass.
As the television news reports over the past couple of days have made clear, Britain's been hit with some very bad weather. We've got off relatively lightly here, as frost rather than snow has been the major theme. Not so umpteen towns around the land, and the television news last night made very sobering viewing. By contrast, this 'red sky in the morning' daybreak scene over the stable yard at 8 o'clock yesterday morning signified a shepherd's warning of nothing more daunting than yet another day of hard frost rather than, for us, a day of snow. We did have a dose of snow today - and it happened to coincide with my intended trip to Kerry Oldfield's farm in Norfolk to swap a couple of batches of horses over, 
which meant that the trip was aborted when I reached Thetford and found that conditions in the thickly falling snow weren't at all good and were getting worse by the minute, leaving me to question whether, three hours thence when I would be trying to make the return journey, the road would be open at all - but overall here a normalish routine has remained more or less feasible without signficant discomfort. And many poor souls around Britain aren't able to say that, unfortunately. So it has still be fairly straightforward to keep the horses exercised more or less as normal, even if tomorrow morning we might have to pick our way to the Heath with even more caution than has been our wont, 
because underfoot conditions might be very tricky indeed with the snow which has fallen today on the existing ice having by tomorrow morning having re-frozen into what is likely to be a very slippery surface. It's actually been harder, though, to get the cats to take enough exercise than the horses, as the indoor life seems to suit them very nicely at present. The horses, mind, are 'enjoying' the indoor life too (not, I think, that horses do enjoy spending too much time indoors) other than when at exercise as we aren't using the field at all at present because it is like the surface of the moon - at least we can speculate that the surface of the moon is very hard and rough, unless, of course, it turns out after all to be made of green cheese after all - 
and the dogs aren't that keen on spending much time out of doors either, despite the impression that you might get from seeing Bean stoically - can one be stoic while looking sorry for oneself? - braving this snow squall which passed through on Saturday afternoon, rendering Warren Hill invisible in the process. This photograph, actually, represents rare footage of one of our dogs not running for cover as soon as something cold and wet falls from the sky! But by and large, for Newmarket at least, the past few days have been ones of clear skies and hard frosts - and as all sensible cats know, clear skies and hard frosts are better appreciated from behind glass.
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