Wonderful day - back on the up!

Today has been - or rather is - a wonderful day!

Firstly, it was raining, which made pretty patterns on the window, and also made the air lovely and fresh.

Mr and Mrs who live on our bedroom windowsill seemed quite pleased with the rain.


Hubby brought me gorgeous toasted bread full of seeds and whole-grain, and ginger and lemon tea, and best of all, I didn't have to take any nasty tablets apart from the prophylactic antibiotics (- as in preventative of getting sick as opposed to pregnant).

And F came to see me and we had a brew and a chat, and I felt all normal again!

So I cleaned the kitchen. Bliss. Not that I like cleaning, but the floor was getting on my nerves, and as I cleaned I imagined all the cancer cells being cleaned away. Okay so it wasn't the Mandala - still working on that - but it was taking control of my life in albeit a small way. I was shaking by the time I'd finished the floor, but the fridge is immaculate and the old poems are making way for the new...

My favourites are the Scot's ones - daren't take 'em apart though!
Please note little'uns poetry in pink and white bottom left!

Later on, J called in for a brew and I sat on the couch wiped out wondering how on earth I was going to make my lesson...

But I did - so I went riding. Which of course, I love!

Little chat before tackling some little jumps!

Winnie was in a funny old mood today, and took objection to the new fence in the outdoor school, even though she's seen it before! She spooked and played up a bit - bucking instead of going into a nice smooth canter transition, but soon settle down when she realised I wasn't going to let her scare me. Or fall off.

This time I dragged poor NeeNee down with me (so she could drive me home again when I'd inevitably overdone it) and made her take pics, and the lighting was weird so we got some lovely artistic shots. Poor woman shivered and snapped away while I took my jacket off after 10 minutes because the sweat was pouring. Chemo does seem to kill your muscles off (my hands are very weak at the moment, for example), and my energy levels mean that 25 minutes of hard riding are as much as my body can take. No matter - soon get fit again when this is all over.

Anyway, the lesson was wonderful, as always. I learned loads about dealing with spooks and bucks, to keep riding through and win the argument, and a bit more about jumping. Today we did two jumps in a row, and I started learning about counting strides and lots of technical stuff. Oh I love it! I'm such a baby beginner but I don't care - it's all so exciting!

I hope you're not expecting a big jump - we only did ickle ones!

Mind you - even little jumps feel quite big on top of a Winnie! If I'm honest though, I can't wait to try something a little bigger now! I've done an upright (a horizontal pole across the top of the white blocks you see in the picture) and there's no tummy lurch like there was when I first did it.

Isn't it fun learning new things!?

Isn't it fun being alive!?