A shocking story Part 1

Once upon a time there was a horse called Mouse, she was a lovely hairy horse who lived in a big field next to lots of other horses, their  fields were separated by electric fences.
Mouse was a very fuzzy thick coated horse of Scottish and Welsh decent! (Highland/Welsh D) so when I say thick coated I mean THICK!
Now this lovely girl also suffered with a condition called sweetitch, she suffered so badly that she was unable to go into a stable at night because she would either knock it down or cause herself bad injuries where she rubbed so severely (even with a no fill rug on for protection).
Now along one side of her field there was a footpath where people strolled, jogged and walked their dogs, some people would see Mouse out in the field in the cold winter and tell her owner off because "That horse should have a shelter! A rug! A stable!"
The other problem that Mouses owner had was the fact that Mouse was also a Houdini horse, if Mouse was wearing a rug she had no respect for the electric fence as she could no longer feel it. Under she would go or more often than not through it she would go, to have a chat with the horses in the adjoining fields, and make them scratch her itchy mane and tail!
What was her owner to do!
Mouse didn't really need the rug, but her owner was fed up with people saying she was cruel leaving Mouse out in all weather's. (Native breeds of any creature will adapt to their surroundings)
Then one day whilst looking for some new feed buckets, Mouses owner found an advert for Guardian Equestrian they make a turnout rug which still allows the electric current to be felt by the horse if it tries to go over, under or through the fence!
 Well this was a breakthrough!
So Mouses owner decided to purchase a no fill rug with a neck cover that way Mouse wouldn't get too hot in a rug she did not need, People on the footpath might not tell her off and Mouse would remain in her field.
Next Friday is pay day...
Tune in for Part 2, coming soon!

London Calling....

I have family and friends in all three of the main emergency services, I come from a military family, I am British!
I have friends who are Muslim, Jewish, Rasta, Catholic, Atheist, Buddhist. I have friends who are very rich, struggling to make ends meet, Amputees, Gay, hetro, students, stay at home mums, NHS workers, adult film makers! Blondes, Brunettes, Red heads, bald, grey and all the colours of the rainbow.
I do not like racism, Sexism, bigoted and people who are quick to judge others on how they look or where they come from.
There are extremists in every walk of life, don't judge all by the actions of a few.

CHARLES MANSON                 had Brown hair

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR      was Black skinned

ADOLPH HITLER                     was a Christian

MOHAMMAD ALI      and JANET JACKSON are both Muslims

IAN BRADY                       was white British

MYRA HINDLEY           was a Woman

HAROLD SHIPMAN      was a GP

I could go on.....
But you get the point!                                                                 Image: Yoga Farm

The things we do for animals!

This post is completely true, I write that because my day sounds as if I have made it up!
On Sunday the fox man came to our house with a fox trap as we have a very mangy dog fox resident in our garden which is looking very ill.

The plan is to catch him in the trap and remove him to our local vets who, once treated will take him to the wildlife hospital just down the road to recover then he will be released back into our garden.

Sunday night was windy, so Monday morning when I got up to look in the trap I found it closed and empty, the mechanism must have been triggered by the wind. I reset it Monday evening then went to bed as usual.
This morning my husband brought a cup of tea up to me in bed and said "You caught something in your fox trap last night!"
Grabbing my dressing gown I ran down stairs and carefully opened the front door walking to the trap I saw a petite tabby cat, Meowing sadly at me.
I don't know when he got trapped but he had eaten all the food we put out for the fox and had managed to vandalise the trip mechanism haha. I made a fuss of him as I let him out, he didn't blot just walked sedately out of the garden as if to say "Nothing to see here"!

Back indoors, tea finished animals fed and watered and the gardener arrives to mow the grass.
I went out to do my horse, when I came back I look out at the lovely tidy grass and notice a hedgehog snuffling about, they shouldn't be around during the day and her body seemed to be an odd shape so I went to take a look.. Poor thing had either a huge tumour or an abscess, it was half her body size!
Finding the pet carrier I stick her in it and drive down the the Wildlife hospital, who say she has to go straight to the vets to be operated on, then they will take her for her recovery and then she can be returned to the garden again.
Do wild animals come into our garden when they are sick because they know I am a soft touch and will take them to the vet or what!?

A stone

I have lost £14
No... Wait .....
I have lost 14lb
Funny that it sounds the same but if you write it down you would rather one than the other!
Now, this stone I have lost has been just through changing the way I eat over the last 5 weeks, this week I plan on adding a second dimension into the mix...
Yep, the dreadded E word
I'm off to the gym to get some exercise...
Watch this space!

BAYLEAF NEVILLE

This post is one I knew I would have to write but never wanted to!
Today, One of the Shire horses from the museum had to cross the rainbow bridge (Sorry I can't bring myself to write it any other way!)
He was 27 years old, he worked hard all his life but had a naughty / cheeky side which I adored. This boy was a big part of museum life, he was known by generations of museum visitors who would ask where he was if we were working a different horse.
Popular hard working and handsome.
Your work is done Big Boy, sleep well. XXX

Big Boy.

Here and Back

Well, The Northern Bird has flown, she is at this moment winging her way north again back to her family.
We have had some fun whilst she has been down, although not our usual out every day type visit we have still packed things in!
Crazy Golf, Coffee mornings, films, and lots of catching up!
Next time we will do our homework and make sure all the places we want to go to are actually open! Oops!!
Today is super foggy too, so I hope it doesn't cause her too much trouble on her 300ish mile journey home.

Happy New Year

Well I know its a bit late! But all the same.
The first 16 days of this year have gone past so quickly its incredible.
I am looking forward to the northern bird coming down for a visit very soon, it feels like more than the six months its been since we last caught up with each other.
Only two days to go

4th in Advent

Blackout Friday!

A post with this title should really only have a one word body... DON'T!

This is the night that Ambulance services across the country (World maybe, who knows) get totally crippled by people who :-

Can't hold their drink,

Think of nothing but themselves,

Spend a week or more's wages on alcohol in one night,

Embarrass themselves in front of their co workers, friends and possibly family

Kill someone or cause them suffering. Yes I did mean to write that. When someone gets so drunk that they become unconscious or their "Friends" (Inverted commas as real friends wouldn't let them get that bad!) are worried because someone has had their drink spiked!!! or isn't responding properly due to the amount of alcohol consumed, an ambulance gets called, an ambulance which will then be tied up for an hour or so dealing with some stupid person who has caused their own situation by stupidity, when it could be attending to someone who has life threatening condition and needs an ambulance through no fault of their own!

This is the night which sees Ambulance service and Police personnel assaulted  in the line of duty due to intoxicated people.

Is it OK to go out of control when so much is at stake?

One last thing... DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE, STAY ALIVE, And let everyone have a Happy Christmas!

Image from The Telegraph.

Nightmare before Christmas.

The other night I had a nightmare, I dreamed I was having a heart attack, I could feel the pain and everything, I woke up and couldn't get my breath which made me panic even more desperately trying to get a deep breath....Then, I really woke up! The whole episode had been a dream, including the bit where I thought I had woken up! This has never happened to me before, the panic and fear were so great and so real.
I have decided that I need to loose weight and also get a bit fitter, maybe this nightmare was the WAKE UP call I needed.
At Christmas I shall eat drink and be merry but up to then and after then I shall be swimming and going to the gym and eating more sensibly than I have been!

My year month by month!

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Well..... what did you expect!!

Third in Advent (Pink is not for Mary!)

John the Baptist

The Inn Keeper

I have just been talking to my brother on the phone, he suggested that we should be celebrating the Inn Keeper at Christmas as he showed the greatest humility by allowing Mary and Joseph to stay in the stable rather than not have anywhere to go.
He also thinks we should celebrate the Inn keeper by helping him...(You can see where this is going I am sure!) As I was saying, helping him by frequenting his business at Christmas. I think my brother is thinking of a few pints and a good meal. Hmm, I may have to google what drink and food would have been on offer 2016 years ago, I have a sneaky suspicion it wasn't anywhere near what my brother has in mind!

Decorations and carols

Today I put the Christmas tree up and all the Christmas decorations. After all the sadness this past couple of weeks I really don't feel Christmassy at all.
This evening was the carols round the Christmas tree followed by mulled wine and mince pies. Well it rained so the Christmas carols were sung inside the church.
Maybe its a little bit Christmassy after all!

Counting the days when you don't actually know the day you are counting down to!

This is what I am doing at the moment.
Obviously there are the big days like Christmas day and New Years day, but there are also the not so International count downs, for instance
The double Baptism             -One day.
The Dentist!!                        -Twelve days.
The Farrier                           -Thirty five days.
The charity coffee morning -Forty three days.
But just when the Northern bird is going to fly south for a visit is a complete mystery!

Today

Today's bloods were mainly taken thanks to Douwe Egberts and Malteser mini reindeer, I am now out of mini reindeer so watch yourself tomorrow people!

Nativity

Today I am going to see a school Nativity play. I can remember the last one, it was 8 years ago, it was my granddaughters and she was 4 and she was an angel! (She is always an angel, such a good girl!)

Today I am going to see my (soon to be) Goddaughter in hers, and I am so excited! Christmas has begun!

To Russia, With my love!

So today my Husband and I were discussing holidays, we have two holidays booked for next year, but the year after we hadn't thought about.
I happened to mention that a Volga cruise might be nice as neither of us have been to Russia, he thought it might be an idea so it looks as if we are going to Russia.

Oranges and.....more oranges!

Today our church held its "The Children's Society" Christingle service, there were a lot of oranges! All the children present received a christingle and any that were left were given to adults.
The candles were all lit and to my knowledge no one set fire to anyone or anything, unlike the time when my daughters were younger, our youngest daughter managed to set fire to the others hair, fortunately it was only slight and I was able to sort it out quickly!