where’s the rest of it?

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Kimono Shawl
Folk Shawls by Cheryl Oberle
yarn: Zephry

I really thought I would have lots more done on this by the time I took this picture. I thought I would awe and amaze you all with my progress. That your jaws would go slack and your mind would boggle. I thought you would then know the true time implications of being at an away horse show for five days.

For knitters, rows are like the rings on a tree – they must certainly indicate endless minutes turning into endless hours.

I never once considered the effects of high humidity on my gauge, not to mention the torrential rain. By the third day, I had given up all hope of knitting.

that was about the time the soft sobbing began.

bad horse.

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WARNING: See how happy they both look?
These pictures in NO WAY capture the true essence of my week.

For the first four days of this five day ordeal, the horse was bad. He was a VERY BAD HORSE. There was refusing and rearing. And plenty of both. If you ride, you know that most problems in the ring stem from the rider. And some of theirs did, but most of them didn’t.

During one class, a trainer was sitting next to me in the stands. She did not know which rider I was watching – didn’t know me from Adam. Her students were gathered around her and she was telling them to watch the riders in the ring – their seat, their form etc. She wanted them to learn something and asked them to see if they could spot the winner.

One little girl piped up, “I like the paint horse”. The trainer lady ignored her and answered some of the others. They were shouting out their picks and the trainer was talking to them about what they said and saw. Spencer’s little fan was insistent and said again, “How about the paint horse? I really like that paint horse” The trainer could ignore her no longer and said with a sigh, “Honey, that horse is bad. That’s a bad horse.”

I don’t like going to these away shows when things are perfect, when the ribbons are blue and so are the skies. When it wasn’t scorching hot with high humidity, it was pouring rain. I brought a bike to ride and then went crazy eating since I was getting extra exercise. The bed at the hotel made my back ache and the carpet was questionable.

On the last day the two of them managed to pull things together – D#2 got tough and Spencer decided to listen. They ended up getting an 8th place (out of 40) in one class and putting in some good rides in the others.

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bad horses and the girls who love them

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I will be away at a horse show with D#2 for the week. Those of you who know me, know how much I hate the thought of it. It is a lot of ‘hurry up and wait’, getting up before dawn to get to the showgrounds to sit around for endless, endless hours. In the meantime, I worry about the poochies while I’m away, worry about the house, worry……

Of course, I am trying to look on the bright side – all of those hours to knit! Since packing space is at a premium, I think I shall take along various sock projects. I was also trying to decide if I should take my laptop along. I was about to look up the hotel’s website to see if they offered free Internet access when the back of my laptop started smoking.

Looks like the Fates have made the decision for me – my laptop will be going on a vacation next week too – back to the shop. I shall not be blogging while I’m gone and apparently won’t be reading any either! ~sniff~

Vicki, this one’s for you!

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Witness the magnificence that is my pantry! The Boar and I worked all weekend on the pantry and our linen closet. Both were emptied (no easy feat with the pantry) the existing shelving ripped out, painted, reshelved and restocked.

I keep going in there just to gaze upon my larder. I love my larder.