This Time I'm Really Going To Do It

Watty1

Full day at the vets on Friday with Charming Cob who had been lame for a few weeks.  Throwing money at him was clearly all that was required as he was pronounced sound enough for work. Lovely hours walk around the village Saturday and 2 hours hack with a neighbour gossiping all the way on Sunday.  Perfect. Then village apple day (press apples for juice etc) and roast for Sunday dinner.  Bought the joint at the Farmers Market and it seemed a bargain. Will now be eating cold roast beef all week!

Ramouth

So pleased to hear Charming Cob is no longer lame and you had a lovely ride.  Do you know what was wrong so you can avoid a repeat?

It sounds like you live in a really nice village with plenty going on.  We considered making apple juice with our surplus but having watched the process on gardeners world this weekend decided it wasn’t worth it.  Sharing the work and equipment with the whole village is a brilliant idea.

themadvix

@Ramouth our local transition town would do apple juicing for people on a particular day for a donation. They used a garden shredder to pulp them! Might be worth seeing if you have something similar near you?

Glad Charming Cob is back to health Watty - always love hearing about your horsey life 😊

Watty1

No idea what was wrong with Charming Cob!

Had a natural horseman trainer come out for young Fell today which was fascinating. He stopped the irritating nipping in a few mins and now I know how to as well, which was fantastic.  Young Fell has now his own headcollar and lead rope rather than making do and his training has begun.  

In less exciting news my credit card bill arrived so I really need to get on top of spending. However, the new tap has been fitted and the harrow arrived.  Yay.  Tractor was used to harrow the resting field that the horse much has been spread in.  This is by way of an experiment to see if feeding the grass improves it. I think I may have over muck spread however so bought seed to re-seed.  The drought was very damaging to the grass, so I need to re-seed some bare bits of one of the other paddocks too.  Was planning on harrowing that and seeding today but the tractor battery was flat. No idea why it goes randomly flat.  Went to charge it and the charger broke.  This is now beyond my pay grade so asked the VNM to sort out and returned to my desk to work!  

Have a hot stone massage this evening - a birthday present voucher that I am finally getting around to using up. Life may be chaotic, but it is good mostly!

Watty1

Oddly the ex and I have had a letter from the waterboard saying that, following communications with the debt recovery service, we are now on the priority services register.    I have no idea why or even what this means other than, apparently, if the water is cut off they will deliver bottled water.   Very strange indeed.

Watty1

Gorgeous day.  Lovely Autumn Day.  Took the Charming cob out for a morning ride and he was much admired by all the local Irish travellers in the area.  It makes me smile when they stop and chat with us.  They are so far from my usual tribe but they are always so complimentary about my lovely cob.   There must be a wedding or party planned as we met so many of them out today.  Then nipped into the local nature reserve for a couple of mins. This is all part of boosting my confidence as I've been a little nervous in the past so I'm wanting to go "new places" off road with the charming cob and so although the nature reserve is for walkers only I thought we would break all the rules    All good

The ex has seemingly gone away, leaving the dog.    I presume he is coming back as his car is still hear. The uncertainty rattles me but I'm striving to just enjoy the day and the peace of having the house to myself.  Have to go to a dinner for a girlfriend this evening or I would be planning on enjoying having the house to myself with a bath and early night.   Hey ho.  With luck he may be gone all weekend!

Watty1

In exciting news I have just confirmed the architect for "the project".  I do not know if planning will accept "the project" or how feasible it really is but I have decided to explore to the point the ex could potentially find out and then put it on hold.  Having "the project" is really keeping my spirits up I must admit.

Humdinger1

I do admire your determination @Watty1 to extract as much joy as possible from the moment, while also normalising the situation.   I understand that Ex has his problems, but you don't have to join in...which he seems determined to accomplish, even though the situation has moved on and it even involved a court case!  He can't manage without you, at some level...I had similar with my ExH.  Keep going, you are an inspiration love Humdinger xx

Watty1

Thanks for the lovely comment @Humdinger1

Lovely weekend:  Meal out to celebrate a girlfriend's birthday on Friday evening; Saturday a lovely ride on Charming Cob and natter with neighbour followed by meeting girlfriends for church coffee and cakes.  Church coffee and cakes is wonderful.  £3.50 for as many cups of tea (or coffee) as one would like and a cake, extra slices for just £1.  3 of us caught up and had a lovely chat and decided we would book a "wreath making" evening.  As in Festive wreaths for those reading along who might be thinking of other kinds of wreaths LOL

All the local places were fully booked so I pinged a message to a local florist and asked her to come to the cottage to teach us and she agreed.  I'm going to provide lentil soup for supper, the girls will bring a bottles of fizz and the florist will bring all we need.  Really looking forward to that and it focused my mind on Christmas.

I'm presuming the ex will still be in the building at Christmas but I am still going to enjoy the festive season so I am making a list of "things to do" for advent.  I'm then going to write each one down and pop in the boxes from an old advent calendar and do them.  Wreath making is one, I purchased a ticket to see a former flat mate sing at an event, will go to a local panto and then I sat and thought of free festive fun so I have found two cartoons to watch and allocated an evening to each, I will of course add in my favourite Christmas films (Miracle of 34th and Its A Wonderful Life) and a few evenings walking the dog around the local villages to look at the lights, coffee by the village duckpond, coffee at the local very expensive country house (where a pot of tea is only £2.50 and they will have fabulous decorations and log fires) and so on.

I found myself really excited about the time rather than an impending sense of dread.  I've asked the lovely boyfriend to put up lights on the outside of the cottage, despite the cost of electricity I'm going to enjoy the lights each time I come in and out.

Ramouth

Brilliant advent idea.  Loving your positivity!