Spring!

Amazing. The final day of February was filthy because when Sunday dawned it was clear that it had rained all night - and then it continued raining right through the day until mid-afternoon. And it was fairly cold too. But then Monday, the first day of March, dawned - and it was lovely. Frosty, admittedly, early on, but it was clear from the outset that, unless the day spoiled, we were due for classic spring conditions: a mild, bright and sunny day under clear blue skies. And that was exactly what we got. What was annoying, though, was that I hadn't taken my camera out to exercise with me. Naturally I made sure that I didn't make the same mistake again today - which was just as well because we had exactly the same conditions. I always regard the year as being split up into four seasons, each lasting exactly three months and with them beginning on the first of March, first of June, first of September and first of December - so that's perfect: we've started spring as we mean to go on. We have had reasonably significant frosts (although nothing as severe as the minus 9 which they had at Leicester last night, which necessitated three inspections before racing was given the go-ahead) but that's a small price to pay for the clear skies which have made the past two days so glorious. So the first photograph is the scene which greeted us on the Severals first lot, sometime after 7.00 when the sun was starting to peek above Warren Hill, and then the second photograph is of the top of Long Hill a couple of hours later. (These horses, incidentally, are four of Jane Chapple-Hyam's string, the one in front being ridden by Paul Morris, the famously gorgeous son of our neighbour Dave; Paul has returned to town again and is working for Jane again). After passing that string I followed my route around to come through the wood on top of Warren Hill and then saw the Heath and town spread before me: a truly splendid sight, as this third photograph shows. The horses in the foreground, incidentally, are two of John Ryan's string, ridden by Jonjo Milczarek (red cap) and Ryan Powell (who is due to depart for the States later this week, my prediction that he would ride plenty of winners in the UK this season seemingly about to be proved about as accurate as most of my other tips), with Dave Morris visible on his own in the light blue jacket just beyond Ryan's darker shape.

I had the pleasure of going out on foot later in the morning because Roger Vicarage, a member of the Tri-Nations Partnership which races Anis Etoile, visited us, so he and I went up to watch the string canter around Side Hill all-weather. By 10.30 conditions were truly heavenly, as this photograph of Silken Thoughts (Hugh Fraser), First Pressing (Steff Ierston) and Anis Etoile (Rodney O'Brien) demonstrates: three nice horses doing their work well in extremely pleasant conditions. So that was really nice. It's always a pleasure when Roger visits, and particularly so when he is accompanied by such glorious conditions. Long may they last!