Hot tub Hotties

At the start of the New Year most people dream of improvements in the forthcoming year, DJ is no different. She has spent most of the winter casting spells and longing for something she saw in a 1970s film. It made a deep impression on her and she decided that when the augeries were right she would get a hot tub.

This arrived yesterday to her delight.

 She is now planning her hot tub party, she will invite all her friends and they would lounge about in the summer evenings drinking Martini and eating canapes.

However there is always someone waiting to spoil the party.

                                       "Where are the babes and the bonios ?"

A difficult moral problem is that of death. On Thursday H saw a rat running across the yard. Now some might say that rats have as much right to live as any other, "cuter" animal. But there are issues of disease to think of and Furrgall was called in to do his duty. This was achieved by the following morning, we are rat free again.

It will be time to stop soon as the Household have outvoted me and Birdsong is due to be watched. Wasn't last week's episode awful ? Within ten minutes I was sick of looking at Eddie Redmayne's stupid bovine face staring into middle distance. He does a lot of staring does Eddie, he stares at walls and he stares at his French paramour. However when he finally got to consumate his desires with what may delicately described as a tree trembler he stared at her elbow. He stared at the mines he was sent down, probably because they were so clean, well lit and spacious. He was having a right good stare when he was pronounced dead, probably by the useless doctor from Downton Abbey, sadly he came round and now we will have to endure episode two.

Not much happening

January is very quiet time of year and here at BC it's much the same. Even Rooster seemed hacked off today when out with Kavi for a stroll in the winter sunshine. Kavi was his usual self, dragging his hooves on the way out and perking up on the way home. By then I had badly torn (ok slightly tweaked) my calf when optimistically trying to mount him from the ground. He's 15.3hh and I'm 3ft 6" ffs. I followed up with having my face slashed open (a bit of a nick) by an errant bramble when cantering up a track. All the hounds are well but acting like dogs which is very disconcerting for a blogger.

On Saturday H and Housemate went out on the razz to the notorious Worcestershire hotspot of Bewdley. They were both sporting dresses !!! I was going to take a picture for you all but when I thought about it, the dialogue "Oh you're both showing off your legs tonight , can I take a picture ?" sounded more than a little creepy so you'll have to take my word for it. Anyway it was good to see Housemate finally getting back to her Northern roots on the way home, she was demanding a kebab (as we drove back through Cleobury Mortimore at 12 45 am...as if) and then if she couldn't have one,  more vodka was needed soonest. She slugged back a large one on her return home.

                                        "What time do you call this ?"

 She was up about four hours after grudgingly turning in. Top respect in the morning when after feeding the horses she had Sausage, Egg, Chips and Beans. For breakfast.

Every Carly has his day

All societies have their hierarchies and our equine population is no different. There is a strict order to the way things are done and who says what is done and when it is done. Sid is the leader with Rooster as his number two. The one who would like to be in charge is Carly. He has leadership qualities, well he wants everyone to do as he says.

"Who's the Daddy ? Oh, not me then"

Sadly, in the football league order of Equine In Chargeness if Sid is the Premier League Carly is the Screwfix Northern Alliance Division 3. Even little Ptracci puts him in his place. He tries to assert himself ,bless him, he will nip any horse that is being held or ridden i.e can't get back at him. He also hides behind H if he is threatened as he knows that she will protect him and punish the aggressor. However when she is not there the pecking order has no one lower, but he still hopes and yesterday he found someone to chase. Hoorah.

The recent windy weather has caused a few branches to fall off the trees in the big field so I went down there to pick up some  for firewood. As DJ was investigating the magic well of Hopton Cangeford and imbibing it's magic powers, (it looked like a muddy puddle to you and me) , hoping that she would soon recapture her magic romping powers, I took Ari with me.

The first problem to be overcome was getting Ari through the mud, which he hates owing to the shortness of his legs. As I had a wheelbarrow with me the solution soon presented itself...

On arrival in the field he leapt out and proceeded to scamper around looking for Imperial Hirelings and Trotskyite Jackals to root out. Carly was looking on playing the part of Good King Wenceslas when he saw an opportunity to boss someone himself at last. He shot off down the hill giving the startled Scottie a good seeing off. Rather like the famous internet clip where the dog chased the deer I was shouting "Carly, leave him Carly..  Benton ...oh JC".  Fortunately Ari is pretty quick on his paws and tragedy was averted as he swerved, ducked and dived out of the way. Carly, having shown all the onlookers who was the Master trotted proudly back to his gang looking pretty pleased with himself.

They looked less than impressed. " It was a small dog" was the consensus opinion relayed to the crestfallen grey.

Every little helps ?

Shopping is one of those boring but necessary tasks that everyone does. Today H and I were in a well known supermarket not far from home when we were almost pushed out of the way by a party of schoolchildren who were clearly on an educational visit to the store. It reminded me of the time that the same sort of scheme was rolled out to horses. needless to say our equines were near the front of the queue. it did not go well though;

 Kavi got through the door and made a beeline for the vegetables and put his head down to have a good feed. Neither security or the manager could move him until he had eaten his fill ( a long time). Rooster, having donned the jacket given to visitors, signed the register, examined the risk assesment and listened intently to the safety brief ,walked slowly round examining the bollards and Fire Exit signs.

            "Safety notices...check. Signs stating the bleedin' obvious.. check"

Carly and Ptracci walked interestedly round the shop pausing to nudge the displays with their noses until they fell over and then running away,and gently pushing the staff  in an attempt to be given free samples of Polos. When these were not forthcoming they disgraced themselves on the floor.

 Cue hasty exit

The Gold Standard of barking

There is a saying about barks being worse than bites but Ari is testing my resolve on this at the moment. He takes his guard dog job very seriously and there is little that moves in the vicinity, in fact there is little that moves in the County without him letting everyone know. This can be a good thing except that he doesn't know when to stop. He needs to take some time off as he has been particularly vigilant in the last few days. The point to point horses in the yard were being taken to the gallops at 6.30 yesterday morning, woof woof woof. They came back at 7.30, see above. Livery lady and Cruella's PA arrive everyday to do their horses, every day mark you, makes no difference to the ruthless one. A severe barking at is their reward

On Friday I had Sky+ed a documentary about The Lark Ascending, my third favourite piece of Vaughan Williams music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR2JlDnT2l8

This is the orchestral version not the pared down version BBC4 used

5 Variants on Dives and Lazarus and The English Folk Song Suite, are nos 1&2 since you ask. ANYWAY.  I had settled down in the peace and tranquillity of the Music Library here to enjoy the programme.The performance was nearing the end, the part where the violin soars ever upwards, as the lark spirals into the clouds before disappearing, when Gershwin from next door went out for his late evening stroll around his garden, BARK BARK BARK went Ari's accompaniment to the music. Have to say that it did not add to the ambiance.

                                   "For Goodness sake stop barking".......Woof

Last night was no better, the NLND hadn't applied for a late pass and when she returned from her Extreme Needlework class after hours he was off again. I don't know how DJ sleeps through it but she does

Backstage gossip

The Spielburg film Warhorse comes to a cinema near you soon, oh you've heard. What is less well known is that the film was originally going to be filmed in Shropshire with a different horse in the lead role. Carly passed the audition for the part at first;

                                         "I'm ready for my close up now Mr Spielburg"

However once it was explained to him that the part entailed running through mud he booked sick with a poorly leg. Next up was Rooster, he looked ideal being imposing and photogenic. The first day of the shoot was a disaster though. He took one look at the guns and immediately donned his safety vest saying " No No No, this is far too dangerous. Oy you.. German chappie, put that bayonet down now, you'll have someone's eye out." Thus bringing the days filming to a premature close. Sacked.

Kavi stepped in for the next day's shoot, the scene was one where he was separated from his owner. he got his motivation spot on. The shoot had to be stopped again when he looked so sad that the entire cast and crew repeatedly broke down in tears.

                                        "Don't make me leave and go to war"

Sniif Sniff, sorry I just....gulp

Bright lights

I imagine that a sign of getting old is staying in on a Saturday night and complaining about how bad the TV is. So last night H, Housemate and I decided to hit the nightlife of Ludlow. The first stop was the takeaway to order the Chinese meal for later, thence  to the Assembly rooms to order tickets for the cinema to see the new Sherlock Holmes film, which is on in a couple of weeks. You have probably noticed that a lot of things in Ludlow have to be ordered in advance. A taxi, for example, usually has a gestation period of about 4 days. Of course the driver won't take you to Hopton Cangeford after dark.

.While at the Assembly rooms we noticed that the new film about Mrs Thatch is coming soon. We considered ordering tickets for that and were just about to ask how many pounds of rotten tomatoes we would be allowed to bring in with us but the lady spotted us for what we were and offered us tickets for a 71 minute documentary on Morris Dancing which was on a week later. They wouldn't accept a booking for Ari either.

The locals prepare for the annual leftie cull



Right now off to the pub. They fall into two categories; one where you go to to watch Sky Sports and have a fight or secondly to the quieter ones. Not surprisingly we went for the latter, the one we chose was reasonably busy, about half a dozen people in. As it is winter most of the ladies were wearing at least three layers of tweed. Housemate got stuck in to the 7% organic cider whilst H and I went for the local Hobsons bitter. After a couple we left to pick up the takeout.

 The streets were deserted, we strolled past the local bakers where they sell local bread in huge loaves which they can't slice owing to the machine always being broken. Next was the deli where they sell jars of olives stuffed with woodpecker and finally the mobile phone shop where they don't know how to unlock phones. The takeout was ready and after seeing all that Ludlow had to offer on a Saturday night we were home by 8.30.

The 2 o'clock at Middleton

Why is it , when we have so many horses of our own, do I feel the need to go and stand in a field and watch some more horses running around ? Why do I feel the need to make multi national bookmakers even richer ? These are questions that need looking into. Horse racing is fun and it gives me chance to cover some of my expenses, (nb Pepite Rose in the 2.00 @ Ludlow is my nap today). The NLND also enjoys a day at the races, but like me finds it a little expensive. So, in an attempt to economise in these tough times, she got together with DJ, who, as you remember, is a wise woman and knows the little people, to start our own Middleton meet.

We put the idea to the horses but Mush and Sid and Kavi all said "Been there, done that, not doing it again". Rooster would have done it but it is too dangerous and therefore Ptracci and Carly won't be allowed to do it either. It looked like a stalemate until DJ and Ari came up with a cunning plan...

                                          Everybodys' favourite.

To try to get some competition we found a rider for Ari but he bit him and DJ ate hers so at the moment it's a one dog race. If anyone out there has a challenger to Frankel Darcy Star we will be waiting to take up the challenge.

How did you spend New Years Eve ?

Happy New Year from all here in Shropshire. We all had a great New Years Eve in our many disparate ways.

Carly went to the pub where he was fed Christmas punch by the lovely Kate (lucky rascal).

DJ heard that there was a 2 for 1 offer on WKD at Houndz wine bar.

After a long session on Moet & Chandon Darcy (and his new cravat) had a quick power nap.

We found Rooster the following morning "Just 5 more minutes please"

Had to take a quick break there as Furrgall appears to be either chasing the userper cat over the roof above me or he's dancing with Sharkey, it's not easy to see black cats in the dark.