Shortest Day Plus One

Goodness it has been nearly a month since I posted. Oops!!!

Well....it is winter!!! Really, really winter. It is wet and cold and the days are very short. The sun doesn't come up until after I get to work at 7:30 and it has set by 5:08 in the evening (I know this as my drive home in the evening is directly into the setting sun).

Since my last post I had a day out in Tauranga (the weekend after Taupo). I do so love getting out of Auckland, even for just a day. Tauranga was FAB as I was catching up with a friend from my deep dark past. Kerri was my best buddy from intermediate school. She and I were going to run away and live on her uncle's farm when we were 11. :-)

It was such a lovely day, we chatted and had a lovely walk along the beach with her adorable puppy, Walter.

Is he not gaw-juss???!!!!

I also took a couple of other pics.

The girls on Papmoa Beach

Happy Brina

And one of a gap in the clouds on the way home (I know....very sad LOL)

So, apart from a lovely trip to Tauranga and a day out at Fieldays (oooooh if I had money I would be dangerous!!!!) my winter hobby appears to be..........baking!!! Not good for weight loss!!!

So far I have experimented with brioche:

Before going in the oven

After:

The brioche was lovely!! It was really, really light. It felt, when you held it, quite stodgy but it was incredibly light when you ate it. I was dead chuffed. But naturally I couldn't eat a whole loaf by myself so next......

I made Chocolate Bread and Butter Pudding with the left over.

It was AMAZING!!!!! Soooooooo yuimmy!!!!!!! I used Delia Smith's recipe which needs to rest for 48 hours but it is soooooooo worth the wait!!!! Yum yum yum!!!!

Next on my hit list was focaccia

Once again, very light and yummy although there are a couple of minor tweaks I would like to make to how I made it. So will need to try that one again.

All the pics seem to make everything look a bit burnt but they weren't. I figure it is either my camera (taken with the phone so possible) or the blue background so I will work on that for the next thing.

Trouble is.... I'm not sure what is next. I was going to try croissants but, having googled the recipe, that falls into the 'just ridiculously time consuming' basket so that is out. I am fairly confident I will think of something but feel free to comment if there is something you are keen on.

On a sombre note, it was a bit of a rough day at work today as last night as Kathryn, my work colleague in Chch was rushed to hospital with a brain aneurysm. We all worried all day about her and I know, for me, it made me really think about mortality and how life is just too short to waste. I have just heard though that she is now talking and looking a lot better.......thank goodness!!!!

The dogs are well. Brina is developing a 'I have to poop' habit at 4am every morning that I am really not very keen on so tonight they didn't get dinner until 8 in the hope that she will last the night!!! Sammie is really, really well. I put her on Glucosamine and was surprised at how much more free moving she is. I didn't think she was stiff until I saw her all freed up!!!!

The horses are enjoying their holiday. They get warm dinners every night and are standing waiting for me from about 3 o'clock!!!

That's about all from me for tonight. You all stay safe and LIVE!!!!!!

Big Bwave Berneses in the Rain

Final toilet stop on a stormy evening:

1) open door to let dogs out
2) Dogs stand at door saying 'but the ground is wet'
3) Owner goes out in rain and calls dogs
4) dogs venture carefully into rain
5) Owner gives toileting instruction
6) Dogs look at owner and say '......but it's raining'
7) Owner says 'hurry up'
8) Dogs continue to stand in rain (which in increasing in intensity) and say '........but......rain'
9) Repeat steps 5 to 8 several times
10) One dog sighs and manages to 'perform'
11) Successful dog retires inside
12) Unsuccessful dog tries to retire inside too.
13) Unsuccessful dog kicked back out into rain.
14) Repeat steps 5 to 8 several more times.
15) Second dog finally manages to oblige.
16) Everyone retires inside and spend the next half hour trying to get dry but end up going to bed soaking wet.

Winter is here!!!

It is a miserable evening. There are squally showers hurtling through and it is about 10 degrees outside (which is not warm for Auckland). There is flooding down in the South Island and snow is expected down there this week which will thrill the snowfields. :-) I love weather!!!

In my last post I had just fallen off Spyke. It was one of my 'better' falls and I managed to land on my head and get tangled in his legs which resulted in a mild concussion, a tiny bit of whiplash and a truly bruised butt!!! I actually felt OK (sore but OK) after falling and got back on and finished jumping (although poor Spyke clearly felt EXTREMELY bad about dropping me and didn't want to lift his legs over the jumps). The next morning however, while walking the dogs I felt quite nauseous and headachy - which I ignored. :-). I was booked to clip Spyke, Em, Bert and Oscar that afternoon and still managed it (I though I would be a LOT sorer (??) than I did so it wasn't too bad.
Pic of Spykes clip
On the Sunday I was entered to do the WRC Show Hunter but when we got there the ground was really wet and slippery so I decided that I would, in light of still feeling blah, forgo the jumping.

I was still feeling pretty hideous the next day (and found myself nearly throwing the iron through the window in a fit of irritation) so I ended up going to the doc and confirming concussion. He said I could feel like this (headachy and irritable) for at LEAST a MONTH!!!!!! 8-0

Soooooooo I pretty much turned Spyke out for the winter, which really is good timing as the weather really has turned to crappola.

I had a busy week with team building in Christchurch (which I loved, it's always good to catch up with the gang) but was pretty shot by the time I got home.

I had a really quiet weekend and slept a lot and felt a LOT better.

This last weekend Tina and I had a day trip to Taupo to watch the cross country of the 3 Day Event. It was so great to get out of Auckland for a day. The weather was fab, the horses were beautiful and the dogs had a great day (especially since they stole Tina's lunch on the way down when we stopped to grab a coffee in Tirau!!!). We gave them a swim in the lake on the way home. I didn't even notice the seven hours of driving.

Speaking of driving, we will not mention the $1100 Warrant of Fitness for my car - YIKES!!!!

Sorry but all pics will be links today as I can't make the laptop 'play'.

2* horse at Taupo

Shelley Ross

Pleeeeeeeeeeease!!

3* horse

Two Girls

Into the water

Great knees (not that I am obsessed with knees!!!)

The Taupo Gang

Ouch!!!!

I fell off!!! 'Nuff said.

But pictures from a walk in the forest:

Playing with 'continuous shoot'

Rain!!!!

Yes!!!! We have rain!! Real wet, earth soaking, grass growing rain!!!! Grow grass, grow!! It is the first proper rain we have had since last year some time and we are in quite a decent drought. Today's rain is no drought breaker but it will hopefully get some grass growing. Our poor horses are living on our winter hay stocks and hard feed at the moment. :-( It is going to be a loooooong winter.

We have had a busy couple of weeks. Spyke and I had our first show hunter outing with Showhunter Waitemata. Spyke was fabulously well behaved and did some really nice rounds. His real strength is in his consistency. He just rumbles around the course in a rhythm. We were in the top ten for our first round which I was THRILLED about. He lost a lot of marks through not using his shoulders fully, he was not lifting his knees and was dangling his lower leg. On the good side he was on the correct lead for every jump and didn't toucg any of them.

The second and third rounds were not as good as the first but that was completely my fault as I have not yet got the correct rhythm sorted and so we jumped a couple of jumps from the wrong spot which detracted from the smoothness of our round. We did 2 rounds at 70cm and then one at 80. It seemed a big jump from 70 to 80 but Spyke did his best with a flustered rider on top.

Our last round was a REAL challenge for me!!!! Because the day was running really late and the ponies had already finished they moved the second 80cm round over to the pony ring. The reason for this being such a huge challenge is that Spyke is prone to throwing in fairly sudden stops at some jumps he hasn't seen before and 80cm (while in reality being extremely small) is VERY challenging to me. I was very, very nervous and very nearly pulled out. Fortunately, I was able to pretty much go straight into the ring after our first 80cm. I had to really RIDE him into every jump. He had quite a few 'thoughts' going into the jumps but, while not pretty, we did a clear round. It was a HUGE confidence boost and I am looking forward to the WRC's Show Hunter this weekend.

At home I have started working on trying to get his shoulders up by doing some bounce grid work. We finish the grid with a single stride to an upright which is currently set at a metre (mucho nerves the first time!!!) Unfortunately, he can 'dangle' at a metre too. LOL Oh well, I shall persevere!!!!

I have also bought some clippers. I got some second hand Heinigers for an excellent price and have also invested in a small set for doing heads and fiddly bits so I am hoping to do some clipping to earn a bit of small cash.

I also turned a year older. I had a lovely day with a ride in the forest involving bubbles, home baking and a Spyke in a good mood. Followed by dinner at Lone Star.

Here are a few pics:
The 70cm round (see the dangly knees)

More 70

80cm I think

The last line of the scary course, this is the scariest jump!!!

1st jump of scary round

Pics from the weekend

Dogs and Horses, Horses and Dogs

Last weekend (Easter) was the weekend of the Bernese Mountain Dog Garden Party in Midhirst. I drove down on Good Friday which was HIDEOUS!!!! The traffic was APPALLING!!!!I basically stopped the instant I hit the motorway and it was a bit of a crawl after that. Fortunately, I know a back road and it paid dividends. :-) I went down the other side of the Waikato River and was the only car on the road until Huntly. The other side of the river was a car park so it saved me a LOT of time. Once I got to Ngaruawahia I was in a line of 20 - 30 cars all the way to New Plymouth. Normally it would take me 4 1/2 hours to get to New Plymouth but on this occasion it took 6 hours!!!
The Traffic in Awakino Gorge:

The Garden Party was great. We had a walk on the Friday afternoon (which we only just made it to) in King Edward Park in Stratford. Then we had a BBQ dinner at the grounds in Midhirst. Saturday was the challenge day. The girls seemed to enjoy the day and came out of it with loads of ribbons. We also learnt about Rally-O which looks like a great sport for berneseseseses.

Some Pics

Brina doing Rally-O

More pics can be seen here

On the Sunday we did some carting. There were only the 'core' berner club people left for that but I just love getting the girls out in their wagon. We will be doing a display at the Pet Expo in Hamilton at the end of July so we will need to work on the girls' carting fitness.

On Sunday afternoon I caught up with Maree and Andrew who were also in NP for Easter. It was great to catch up and by leaving on Sunday afternoon I had a great drive back to Auckland.

On Easter Monday four of us had a LOVELY ride in the forest, we hacked, jumped, galloped and went through the creek. Spyke was fab and it was a lovely way to spend a day.

This weekend we had Dressage Day 3 of the summer dressage series with the WRC. Spyke was lovely and it was really hot again. We did a novice test this time. I was really, really happy with his trot and walk work but I accidentally jabbed him when I asked him to canter and he gave me some pretty horrible canter. :-( However, he still managed to get a 4th which I was stoked with. We did a prelim test too although he was arguing with me again so I didn't ask him to go into any sort of frame but he still managed a 2=. We also did a prix caprilli test again. Spyke was almost asleep when we started the test and was somewhat surprised by the first jump (the big noddy LOL) so he managed to take a rail....at all of 60cms!!!!! However, that woke him up and he did the rest really nicely. I was pretty confident that we had completely blown our chances with the rail but the little bugger managed to win the prix caprilli again. Luff that horse!!!! I will post a couple of pics of the dressage once I have downloaded them.

Today I caught up with Beryl, Richard and Heather at the Botanic Gardens for a dog walk which was really lovely. Although I did manage to have a sudden altitude adjustment when I was walking down by the creek. Them rocks are really, really slippery and I ended up with a very wet and muddy leg and butt. Gonna pay for that tomorrow methinks!! In the afternoon I checked up on Tina's two youngsters and have a lovely ride on Spyke.

Next weekend though is our Show Hunter debut. I am very, very excited about it!!!! I soooooo hope it goes well!!!!!

Some other pics:
The Mountain

Maree

Sunset at Westgate