Badminton horse trials and bird-spotting

The new header photo is the view through one of the window gaps at Grosmont Castle, which will appear in tomorrow's post (with any luck!)

Back again after a lovely weekend away with my friend J.  We went to Badminton Horse trials on the Saturday.  I'd not been for several years, and it was a great day out (though a tad expensive at £28 a head to get in, plus parking).  Just as well it's only once a year!

I'll let the photos speak for themselves:

It's a wonderful course, about 4 miles long, and there is an optimum time in which it should be completed.  Going outside that time means extra penalties.  Fall of horse or rider means elimination.  The jumps are big, but constructed with frangible pins which means they free the rail/part of the jump and allowing it to drop when hit hard, preventing the rotational falls which claimed the lives of several riders in the past.  Competitors start and finish in the main arena, and that is where we ended up having walked the course, and saw the last few home from a well-earned seat.

Thousands of people go to Badminton each year, and LOTS of dogs too! in all shapes and sizes.

This was my favourite.  She'd got tired, so they tucked her up and she had dozed off, bless her.  She was ready for action again now!

There were other horses around the course too.  Here are two of the Berkeley Hunt.  (The yellow jacket is a giveaway).

Mounted police officers in the gloom of Huntsmans' Close.

Children from the local Pony Club branch act as runners.  All were immaculately turned out, needless to say!

All too soon it was time to say goodbye to the beautiful Badminton estate, though we did linger a 2nd time wandering round the trade stands where I bought some Bamboo socks.  WHY have I not bought any before?  They are SO soft and comfortable.  I will be getting more.  In the morning I had bought a warm ribbed hat with a fleece lining for just £5.  A good investment as I wore it the first half of the day when it was a bit windy.

Then it was slowly back home, via the village of King's Stanley, where my friend grew up.  I got a guided tour: )

This William Morris designed church at Selsey was of course locked by the time we got there, but we shall return.

View across the mostly modern end of the village.

Footpath up on to Selsey Common.

Finally, the bird-spotting, which we did a lot of in idle moments back at my friend's house.  Her land surrounds the cottage, and was home to lots of birds, including this leucistic Blackbird (affectionately known as "Pie" of course, short for piebald.)  He was very camera-shy.  We saw lots of him but the minute I appeared with my camera indoors, he was away!

Blurry picture of him on the fence, with Moles behind him.

Greater Spotted Woodpecker on feeder.

Mr Hoppy, one of several Pheasants about the place, and who had a very sore foot after fighting.  He has got a lady friend but she's not sitting on eggs yet, but follows him about the place.

What I DON'T have a photo of, sadly, is the VERY rare Hawfinch (who has a mate and one of last year's youngsters still begging for food).  I saw him clearly from the kitchen window, where he had visited the Yew Tree to feed on the remains of last years' seeds.  Such a beautiful bird, with a white-edged tail, and quite a gingery coloured head.  Very stock with a hefty beak.  Stunning.  HERE is a link so you can find out about it and see how stunning it is.

Anyway, I'm back home now.  No more horses to groom or make a fuss of, or others to watch in action, and it's nose to the grindstone time again!

Many thanks to J & L for a fabulous weekend and AMAZING food!  You should have seen our picnic for Badminton - Salmon gravlax with Crayfish tails and a lovely lentil salad, crudites and hummus dips.  Scrummy.

A little something to keep me busy

Isn't he gorgeous?  I'm not a brilliant (or fast) knitter, but this waif and stray came home with me from my friend Annie's cottage yesterday.  He needs to be finished, and as Annie's daughter can't knit, I found my voice saying that I would have a go!

Here he is with his jumper on.

You may remember the beautiful wool embroidery that Annie had been trying to finish (it's for a Fire Screen).  I have said I will complete this too.  Not much to do - just a bit of pink on the infill of the flower top left, and some yellow to echo the black in the border.

This is one of the books I have been given from Annie's full bookshelves.  I have not come across this one before but it is excellent.  I must look out for her other gardening books now too.

Look out for photos from Badminton Horse Trials next week, as I am staying with a friend and going to X-country day tomorrow.  Have a good weekend.

Home baking . . . and other things.

On Tuesday I finally found time to do some baking.  I had promised our friend V a cake and she had requested a Victoria sponge.  I decided to go the whole hog and stuff it with double cream and fresh strawberries . . .  I was soooooooooo good as when she offered to cut me a piece, I said no!

However, I also made myself a Lemon Drizzle Cake, and I have allowed myself a couple of pieces of this . . .

I like moist cakes, and usually use fresh fruit in cakes (especially apples) to get the moistness.  I use as little sugar as possible, although with lemon drizzle, of course there is sugar in the lemon juice syrup used to top it.

I took advantage of a dry day this week to finish planting up the wall with the £1 Aubretias.  It looks so much better than it did.

Above and below.  Here's a chair in need of some tlc which we bought from auction yesterday.  It's mid-Victorian and has certainly seen some service, as the legs were  worn down/cut down and now need replacing or a pair or rockers.

Some polish and elbow grease will transform this chair.

Meanwhile, life goes on.  I am up at my friend Annie's cottage again today, getting the last few boxfuls gathered together, ready to go to auction.  Then will be the Big Clean Up.  I could do with a Big Clean Up here, but unless I am cloned, or prepared to work the night shift, it will just have to wait.

I am away for the weekend, staying with a friend and visiting Badminton Horse Trials for the first time in a few years.

Notes on finding Madonna's trainer bra . . .

Hectic is the word here.  We took a "day off" yesterday to go up to Builth Wells for a wander round the Antiques Fair/Fleamarket.  We saw all the usual suspects and even parked right next door to fellow stallholders M & L!

Firstly, I was talking about my Clematis Montana rubens not being in flower yet.  Well, last night's heavy rain changed that and here she is, just starting to take off . . .

A couple of little indulgences - this a joint one as we love Doulton plates.  We collect coaching scenes and at just £2, it would have been foolish not to bring this one home to put on the dresser with a couple of others.

Above and below: I bought just one piece of Torquay pottery - this rather splendid shaving mug.

I also bought a rather splendid bowl in a style that Eldest Daughter would love, so I had better now show a photo of that in case she comes on here . . .

Above and below, what we laughingly call "Madonna's trainer bra" for obvious reasons!!  As far as we know it was worn by a pit pony down the mines.  A trader friend told me that all pit ponies were blind so they didn't need to see and this would have protected their eyes . . .  Well, since regulations forbid the use of blind ponies underground, that doesn't wash (it is a popular myth - and an incorrect one - that all pit ponies went blind from working in the dark underground.)  I said that they were given holidays if the pit closed, but he wouldn't believe me!  Here is a piece written by a former pit worker in Durham:

In the summer when the pit was on holiday for two weeks the ponies would be brought to the surface for their holidays. It was great to see them enjoying themselves in the fields, jumping and running and throwing their heads about and having a good time in the fresh air and in the sunlight.

My hunch is that it is a mask used on more nervous ponies or ones which hadn't had the experience before - of being lowered down shafts to the deeper mine workings.  Old drawings show ponies in a French mine being bundled up in supporting harness with hay or straw stuffed beneath the belly bands, and they were lowered down shafts bottom-first.  Perhaps the old hands didn't bat an eyelid after a while, but I should imagine this sort of mask would calm a pony the first few times it underwent this experience. From  the 20th C onwards I am assuming that they went down in the same cages the miners used to reach these lower levels.

Anyway, I can't think of any other reason for fitting a leather blind like this.  Suggestions welcome.

More gardening . . . and a Heron in an apple tree.

When I looked out of the window one day this week, that is what I saw - a Heron perched, looking very ungainly, in our apple tree by the pond.  As I moved towards the window, he scarpered.  I have attempted to do a rough head count in the pond but the fish are very wary, so perhaps he has been fishing early in the morning.  I should have about 24 fish in there of varying sizes, including 7 or 8 black babies which haven't yet changed colour.  All the frog tadpoles have gone, so I am guessing that they had a virus or something.  However, a fresh lot of jet black tadpoles (Newt I am guessing) has hatched on the other side of the pond, so I am hoping they are immune to the virus.

Some plant bargains this week.  The Aubretias are just £1 per pot in Morrisons.  I bought three the other day and another 8 yesterday, and may get some more to totally revamp the top of the wall.  The zonal Pelargoniums are just 75p each in Lidl.  I can't even buy these so cheaply at a car boot sale.

3 lovely new planters from Charlies, reduced to £4.99 each.  I usually go for the deep blue ceramic planters (bigger ones) but this green appealed to me yesterday.

I bought them so I could blitz this area by the gate, which has gotten very overgrown and shabby and is difficult to weed, because I put stones around the tree-trunk planters.  So - it all has to GO.

There, a start has been made.  Considering this has membrane under all of it, to stop the weeds, it's amazing how little difference it has made!  I have just plonked the planters there for the moment.  Hopefully it will look a little different when finally finished.

Fresh compost in the wall-top, and Aubretias planted.  I am debating removing the small area of campanula and a.n.other plant whose name escapes me, which have grown in the wall ever since I first planted it.  Then I can have the entire wall looking uniform.  I feel like a murderer even contemplating it though I will try to save them with roots and replant elsewhere . . .

Another unusual and pretty tulip unfolding.

I have potted on my Lace-cap Viburnum, in a lovely planter I had with a Bee on it.  As my late friend Annie was a bee-keeper, this seems very appropriate.

Clematis scrambling through the trellis.  I think it's a Montana but not rubens.  My Cl. Mon. rubens is in the yard (photos later, as it's just unfolding its petals).  I used to have the most AMAZING rubens, which went the width of the garden and had a million flowers each spring. THEN Next Door's unpleasant (I am being polite here) son decided to take the trasher to it - 4 runs each way killed it stone dead.  I don't normally bear a grudge, but I have made an exception in his case.

I don't normally care for pink as a colour, but isn't this divine?  This is the Bramley tree.