Ten days since I last posted, which is very poor indeed. And I can't even blame the redesignedness of the site, as I've had nothing to do with that. The brunt of the blame lies in the fact that we went away for two days. It sounds rather strange to say it, but I didn't have a weekend off last year; but I had the last weekend in January off this year, as Emma and I headed down to France on the Friday afternoon for 'La Route des Etalons' and didn't come home until Sunday evening. This Normandy stallion studs' open weekend was great - but two
days off take a bit of catching up for. Anyway, after my ten-day absence I'm back blogging. I suppose that La Route des Etalons deserves a chapter on its own, especially as I saw Minnie's Mystery for the first time for two years and saw her Gold Away yearling filly for the first time, so it can have one; but this isn't it. Having mentioned the trip, though, I'll have to say something about it in this chapter, even if only about the weather. On the
Friday morning I'd taken Dr Darcey up to the Links for William to school over hurdles (pictured, twice) and the weather was already getting crisper and drier - not the rock-hard frost which we have currently, but the skies were clearing, and colder and drier weather was clearly on the way. Which was rather pleasant. As was the weather in France. We had two days driving around Normandy, visiting four studs on the Saturday and three on the Sunday. Saturday featured
intermittent showers but that wasn't the end of the world, and by and large we managed to avoid significant rain; while Sunday dawned with a very hard frost complete with freezing fog, which gave way to absolutely glorious sunshine once the sun got up. The one photograph which this chapter is getting from the Saturday (of Kendargent, whom I enjoyed visiting at Haras de Colleville, having recently written about him both for the French Racing & Breeding Yearbook and for
http://www.thoroughbredinternet.com/)
illustrates that day as the shadows being cast show that the sun was more or less out, while the sky in the background gives the clue to the fact that it was about to piss down with rain again. The two photographs from the Sunday (of Minnie's Mystery's relative Archange D'Or at Haras de Reboursiere et de Montaigu, and of the great old jumps sire Sleeping Car at the French National Stud at Haras du Pin) make it clear just what a lovely day that was.
So that was grand. And another thing which has kept me from blogging has been a sale in Newmarket two days ago, which kept me busy both on the day and beforehand as I was involved as both consignor and purchaser. But more of that anon - because, of the course, the main story of this week has been the weather. We've had a very hard frost for a few days now, which is great as everything is very dry including the air, and so we've had sunny days and all the other benefits of high atmospheric pressure. As we'd had
a few rain-free days before it started to freeze (unlike in the past couple of winters, when hard frosts immediately after prolonged heavy rain meant that there was treacherous ice everywhere) there aren't any problems with icy conditions underfoot, and by and large the place doesn't even look very icy. In fact, if you just glanced out of the window of a warm house you probably wouldn't even realise that we were having a freeze-up at all. These two photographs
of Terri and Hannah (on Silken Thoughts and Wasabi respectively) riding out probably suggest that conditions are really rather balmy, until you notice how much clothing they are each wearing. This third photograph, looking up towards Long Hill mid-morning yesterday, contains precocious few clues that it was a cold day (although if you look closely you'll see the horses' breath, which is always a give-away) but then the same
bit of hillside, taken from the top this morning between Kadouchski's ears, makes it more plain as, seen more closely, the ground is clearly frozen solid. Anyway, that's all very pleasant (seriously - it is very pleasant, when the alternative is rain, rain, mud, mud and more mud) and, although it's supposed to change overnight with the arrival of the snow which saw Wolverhampton called off two thirds of the way through its programme this afternoon, I dare say that that might be quite fun too.
Ooh, forgive me - I nearly forgot: the weather isn't the big news at all, or not from Gus' point of view anyway. He's the birthday boy today. One year old. Where's the year gone? I suppose that that means that he's no longer a puppy, which is a shame as he was a lovely puppy. And we haven't even done anything in particular to mark the occasion. He did send his sister Violet a birthday card (well, he's got 10 siblings, but only one with whom we keep in touch) but otherwise it's been just like any other day. But there's no harm in that, because he seems to enjoy every day as it is. So I hope that he's had a good birthday. He certainly looks happy enough in this photograph.
Ten days since I last posted, which is very poor indeed. And I can't even blame the redesignedness of the site, as I've had nothing to do with that. The brunt of the blame lies in the fact that we went away for two days. It sounds rather strange to say it, but I didn't have a weekend off last year; but I had the last weekend in January off this year, as Emma and I headed down to France on the Friday afternoon for 'La Route des Etalons' and didn't come home until Sunday evening. This Normandy stallion studs' open weekend was great - but two 
days off take a bit of catching up for. Anyway, after my ten-day absence I'm back blogging. I suppose that La Route des Etalons deserves a chapter on its own, especially as I saw Minnie's Mystery for the first time for two years and saw her Gold Away yearling filly for the first time, so it can have one; but this isn't it. Having mentioned the trip, though, I'll have to say something about it in this chapter, even if only about the weather. On the 
Friday morning I'd taken Dr Darcey up to the Links for William to school over hurdles (pictured, twice) and the weather was already getting crisper and drier - not the rock-hard frost which we have currently, but the skies were clearing, and colder and drier weather was clearly on the way. Which was rather pleasant. As was the weather in France. We had two days driving around Normandy, visiting four studs on the Saturday and three on the Sunday. Saturday featured 
intermittent showers but that wasn't the end of the world, and by and large we managed to avoid significant rain; while Sunday dawned with a very hard frost complete with freezing fog, which gave way to absolutely glorious sunshine once the sun got up. The one photograph which this chapter is getting from the Saturday (of Kendargent, whom I enjoyed visiting at Haras de Colleville, having recently written about him both for the French Racing & Breeding Yearbook and for http://www.thoroughbredinternet.com/) 
illustrates that day as the shadows being cast show that the sun was more or less out, while the sky in the background gives the clue to the fact that it was about to piss down with rain again. The two photographs from the Sunday (of Minnie's Mystery's relative Archange D'Or at Haras de Reboursiere et de Montaigu, and of the great old jumps sire Sleeping Car at the French National Stud at Haras du Pin) make it clear just what a lovely day that was.
So that was grand. And another thing which has kept me from blogging has been a sale in Newmarket two days ago, which kept me busy both on the day and beforehand as I was involved as both consignor and purchaser. But more of that anon - because, of the course, the main story of this week has been the weather. We've had a very hard frost for a few days now, which is great as everything is very dry including the air, and so we've had sunny days and all the other benefits of high atmospheric pressure. As we'd had 
a few rain-free days before it started to freeze (unlike in the past couple of winters, when hard frosts immediately after prolonged heavy rain meant that there was treacherous ice everywhere) there aren't any problems with icy conditions underfoot, and by and large the place doesn't even look very icy. In fact, if you just glanced out of the window of a warm house you probably wouldn't even realise that we were having a freeze-up at all. These two photographs
of Terri and Hannah (on Silken Thoughts and Wasabi respectively) riding out probably suggest that conditions are really rather balmy, until you notice how much clothing they are each wearing. This third photograph, looking up towards Long Hill mid-morning yesterday, contains precocious few clues that it was a cold day (although if you look closely you'll see the horses' breath, which is always a give-away) but then the same 
bit of hillside, taken from the top this morning between Kadouchski's ears, makes it more plain as, seen more closely, the ground is clearly frozen solid. Anyway, that's all very pleasant (seriously - it is very pleasant, when the alternative is rain, rain, mud, mud and more mud) and, although it's supposed to change overnight with the arrival of the snow which saw Wolverhampton called off two thirds of the way through its programme this afternoon, I dare say that that might be quite fun too.
Ooh, forgive me - I nearly forgot: the weather isn't the big news at all, or not from Gus' point of view anyway. He's the birthday boy today. One year old. Where's the year gone? I suppose that that means that he's no longer a puppy, which is a shame as he was a lovely puppy. And we haven't even done anything in particular to mark the occasion. He did send his sister Violet a birthday card (well, he's got 10 siblings, but only one with whom we keep in touch) but otherwise it's been just like any other day. But there's no harm in that, because he seems to enjoy every day as it is. So I hope that he's had a good birthday. He certainly looks happy enough in this photograph.
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