The first day of 2019 in Longoio and it’s a day that’s deciding between being sunny and being cloudy.
Back in Britain we used to begin our New Year with a hack. I am, of course, referring to the equestrian meaning of the term which is to ride a horse for a little exercise.
We would go to one of the stables in the south east suburbs of London. Mount Mascall was a particular favourite
Sandra is a much more experienced and rather better horse rider than I was. Indeed, it was she who introduced me to the pleasure of riding an equine.
Here are some photos from those long-past New Year hacks.
At one stage we even had a horse. We found him wandering alone on the Plumstead marshes. No-one seemed to lay claim to him. We took the horse to our house and his stable was in our garage for some time Sandra christened him ‘shooting star’ because of his distinctive head marking. Every morning Sandra would take Shooting Star to the wide expanses of Woolwich common where Shooting star enjoyed his grazing.
We never got to the stage of putting a saddle on the gelding for one day he disappeared creating the following newspaper title:
In Hungary we met the best horses in our lives.
In Italy we enjoyed pony-trekking for several years.
On one of our excursions near Pian di Fiume we met a much tinier little fellow.
It was none other than our beloved Napoleone (the name had already been given to him by one of the stable lads) who left us over a year ago. He made us first aware of himself by putting his little paw through a giant mill-wheel centre hole.
Next day I returned to the stables. We had been allowed to take Nap home with us.
This is Nap’s first meal at our Longoio home.
‘’Happy times, happy memories. No greater grief than to remember days of joy, when misery is at hand. (Dante Inferno Canto 5)’.
What will 2019 truly bring us. We can be certain of nothing in our wisp of a life. Let us enjoy instead what we do have and look at our hour-glass as being half-full rather than being half-empty.
Buon Anno – Happy New Year!
Francis asked me to read this blog post to him as he felt too emotional to read it to me. Certainly I too felt somewhat saddened as in a way I yearn for those wonderful New Year’s Day outdoor pursuits which delighted me and him no end and gave us a crisp fresh happy beginning to the New Year. The sadness lies in the fact that most if not all our favourite stables shut down for one reason or another. I managed to persuade Francis to learn with Gail at the Farm in Eltham it was such fun as we did gymkanas which I’d never done so I learnt something new too even rode without stirrups and saddle. I would have loved to have pursued a career with animals maybe dressage with horses but it was an extremely expensive pursuit or some veterinary skills but that meant more lengthy study and expense. So I opted to have our own family of cats but that is another story, just to say that I happily pursued and fulfilled some of these wishes and ended up populating our immediate area with our beautiful little creatures. In Italy we had further family of creatures rabbits, ducks, cats and fish yet more happy adventures and sadness too, sadly nothing lasts forever. Our animals have been such a comfort to us both despite it does take a lot of hard work to look after them.
Thankyou so much dearest Sandra for yur heartfelt comment.