brave new year
( I like a fresh year. )
If there's a better way to spend New Year's Day than on a horse, I know not what that would be. I had the honour of tagging along on a New Year's ride with grumpy bastard and a pair of his very good friends (at least they seemed awfully good to me.)
If you were anywhere near here, you know that it snowed on New Year's Eve (how perfect is that? Not that I set any store by this absurd calendar. Still. Well. Still.)
The trails, then, scribbled themselves past fields half-covered in snow, sometimes concealed and sometimes framed by branches loomed with bright green moss. The moss and the snow seemed like relatives, soft covering forces muting the forms of whatever they lay themselves over. Great drops of water fell picturesquely down the backs of our necks. We were cold but happy.
My horse was excellent, in that she was both responsive (she stopped banging my knees into the tree trunks when I suggested it) and capable of ignoring me when I did things that didn't make any sense. This is a rare and excellent balance for anyone, and I think I'd like to cultivate it in myself. I believe I had almost as much fun as Team Lucky Charms, the horse-and-rider pair who brought up the rear of the expedition. (We were all placed in order. Had we been riding in order of skill, I would have been asked to stay at the barn.)
When we'd break into a gentle trot on short stretches of road, I'd laugh maniacally, like a suicidal pilot aiming for the ocean at top speed. Dog only knows what I'd have done if we (gasp) cantered.
I lack a certain apparently near-universal flexibility in the hips, so there was a little bit of a crisis in the whole getting-off-the-horse department, but I only stepped on grumpy bastard's foot a Very Little Bit, and he was gallant about it.
* * *
( Yesterday was the first Full Dress Code day at work... )
* * *
Sunday was Tea and Poker. It was only going to be Tea, and then it struck me that we had nothing to do after tea, and I thought, well, poker, obviously.
I liked that quite a bit, although it was even more fun once we switched over to Tic(k), an elaborate game promoted by grumpy bastard. I made a cake; sour cherry tarts were brought; and frightening amounts of tea drunk. I think I will have another tea-and-gambling night soon. Tea and Games Named After Parasites: Sign Up Now. I can accomodate eight per seating, or more if we sit on the floor.
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If there's a better way to spend New Year's Day than on a horse, I know not what that would be. I had the honour of tagging along on a New Year's ride with grumpy bastard and a pair of his very good friends (at least they seemed awfully good to me.)
If you were anywhere near here, you know that it snowed on New Year's Eve (how perfect is that? Not that I set any store by this absurd calendar. Still. Well. Still.)
The trails, then, scribbled themselves past fields half-covered in snow, sometimes concealed and sometimes framed by branches loomed with bright green moss. The moss and the snow seemed like relatives, soft covering forces muting the forms of whatever they lay themselves over. Great drops of water fell picturesquely down the backs of our necks. We were cold but happy.
My horse was excellent, in that she was both responsive (she stopped banging my knees into the tree trunks when I suggested it) and capable of ignoring me when I did things that didn't make any sense. This is a rare and excellent balance for anyone, and I think I'd like to cultivate it in myself. I believe I had almost as much fun as Team Lucky Charms, the horse-and-rider pair who brought up the rear of the expedition. (We were all placed in order. Had we been riding in order of skill, I would have been asked to stay at the barn.)
When we'd break into a gentle trot on short stretches of road, I'd laugh maniacally, like a suicidal pilot aiming for the ocean at top speed. Dog only knows what I'd have done if we (gasp) cantered.
I lack a certain apparently near-universal flexibility in the hips, so there was a little bit of a crisis in the whole getting-off-the-horse department, but I only stepped on grumpy bastard's foot a Very Little Bit, and he was gallant about it.
* * *
( Yesterday was the first Full Dress Code day at work... )
* * *
Sunday was Tea and Poker. It was only going to be Tea, and then it struck me that we had nothing to do after tea, and I thought, well, poker, obviously.
I liked that quite a bit, although it was even more fun once we switched over to Tic(k), an elaborate game promoted by grumpy bastard. I made a cake; sour cherry tarts were brought; and frightening amounts of tea drunk. I think I will have another tea-and-gambling night soon. Tea and Games Named After Parasites: Sign Up Now. I can accomodate eight per seating, or more if we sit on the floor.
{rf}