'Festive'

Time flies.  Six days go past in the blink of an eye, so I guess that I ought to knock off a quick chapter on this blog.  We've had one runner since I last posted something up here: Fen Lady ran in a maiden race at Wolverhampton on Monday evening and finished a respectable and promising fourth.  It was a 'step forward' from her previous runs, as they'd say on the TV, so that was good.  She's been improving at home - both in her work and in her appearance, as she's grown over the summer/autumn, and has strengthened as well as growing taller - so it was very pleasing to see her form start to improve in tandem with her general development.  Let's hope that she can continue to progress; she ought to do so, but nothing is guaranteed.

Monday was a rare occasion of our having a runner and my not going to the races.  I had a couple of commitments in town that evening, so Hannah took her up there.  I had committed to attending the Museum Club students' presentation in the museum at 6.00; and at 7.00 we had our last Town Council meeting before Christmas (and last of 2015) so I felt that, as the chairman, I ought to be there.  It (ie the last meeting of the year) is always rather a jolly meeting, with our version of being 'festive' being to refrain from arguing too much with each other; so it was good to be there.  And I could do so with a clear conscience, knowing that the filly was in very safe hands at Wolverhampton.

As Fen Lady ran well and appears to have come out of the race well, and as there is what ought to be a suitable race for her on Tuesday, she might be added to our swag of pre-Christmas runners.  So we could have six runners now in the final three days of racing before Christmas: Cottesloe and Koreen at Lingfield and Zarosa at Fakenham on Sunday, Tommy at Wolverhampton on Monday, and Indira at Wolverhampton and Fen Lady at Southwell on Tuesday.  So that's two more meetings (but not two more racedays) when we'll have a runner and I won't be there, as obviously I can't be in two places at once.  It's looking like I'll go to Lingfield on Sunday, and we can cross the Tuesday bridge when we're a bit nearer to getting there.

It's pretty gloomy weather, as one expects during the shortest days of the year, but it's very mild: today we don't just have double figures for the day-time maximum, but for the night-time minimum too.  And, although it's very wet underfoot everywhere, we actually haven't had that much rain, other than a deluge overnight Saturday into Sunday.  We've certainly had very little compared to other places (and, of course, Cumbria, where it's been the wettest, had heavy snowfalls at the weekend, just to rub it in). I love my weather data and, having rubbed my ears in amazement at hearing that Thirlmere had had 400mm in two days, I was even more taken aback to find that on Shap, the big hill over which one drives on the M6 south of Penrith, there fell 900mm in a week.  That's more, considerably more, than we'd usually get in a year here, so we truly have got off lightly.

I took these photographs on Long Hill on Saturday morning.  You'll see Tommy and Jana, Cottesloe and Martina, Sirli and Hannah, and Hymn For The Dudes and Sarah.